Ava Ives
by Ali Harkness
Summary: Ava Ives is the younger sister of Vanessa Ives with an equally mysterious past. This is her account on the events that happen after she meets Ethan Chandler; the man who changes her life.
1. Pilot

**Giving this idea a try, would love some feedback!**

That southern accent was flawless. Fake, but flawless. Heads turned with every shot he took. The woman gasped and the children stood on their tiptoes to see over the towers of people. The little boy next to me was jumping up and down with excitement and imitating the shooting sounds as the pistol fired. He couldn't see that this man was obviously wearing a wig, a fake mustache and a ridiculous bowtie. But it was the man from my dream all the same. The one that could help us.

I glanced back my sister who was sitting in the stands. Her head was the only one that didn't turn, her hands were the only ones that didn't clap when the series of dramatic shots caught my eye and I grinned, turning back to the show. I had pushed my way through the crowds to the front. I wanted a good view of my man. That's what I'd been calling him since I had the dream, my man.

"General Custard gave the word, his blond hair flapping in the breeze like something from myth!" My man shouted over the cheers. The crowd fell silent again. "Stand here and fight boys, fight for you very lives!" The cheering started again. Someone on the other side of the field threw a ring which he shot expertly. I wasn't really listening to the story he was telling. That was for the brainless. I was studying him the way I studied everyone. You could learn a lot about a person from simply watching the way they walked. He thanked the crowd and tipped his hat before shooting into the audience above a group of woman who screamed. He was impressive. I caught up with Vanessa as the crowd was filing away.

"Are you sure he's your man?"

"I'm sure. And you said you'd let me do this. I feel like I'm being babysat."

"You are," she said unapologetically. Then she grinned and slipped her arm through mine. "So, are we following him then?" I watched him wandering off with a girl.

"No, we're waiting until he's done. Then we're following him." She laughed. We sat on a bench with a clear shot to the back exit of the fairgrounds. She was distant. That was never good. I was constantly watching Vanessa. She had good nights and bad nights. Last night had been a bad one. I was hoping this man could help us. In the dream, I'd felt like he could. That was typically how my dreams went. They were just feelings. And then I woke up knowing things about the person I'd seen. For instance, I knew that this man was not really an American cowboy sharpshooter. He was an actor in need of money. He traveled everywhere to get it. We did have a common interest though. America. I was hoping to use that. I still had my American accent from when I was at school there. I'd perfected it to blend in. Now that I was home, I spoke with a blend of both. But it was a way into a conversation at least.

"Are you alright Ness?" She was wringing her hands.

"I'm tired of waiting, that's all. How long does it take for a man to have a quick- don't look at me like that." I was giving her my 'don't lie to me, I know you' look. "I'm fine." I nodded. If she needed me, she'd ask.

"There he is." He'd taken off the wing and was sneaking past everyone unrecognized. I got up and ran after him.

"Ava, wait!" Vanessa called after me. I giggled and ran faster. He stopped to exchange money with another member of the act. I went to make my move. Vanessa had caught up to me and put her arms around my waist, preventing me from moving. "This is why you need to be babysat. Be patient. You can't approach him now, not in front of people he knows."

"Oh, fine." Patience was not my thing. We followed him to a pub in the east side. He sat by himself at a table staring at his stopwatch. "Can we go now?" She nodded, smiling. We walked up to his table. He didn't notice or even look up until Vanessa spoke.

"You lied." His eyes met Vanessa's. "By my reckoning, you were only a boy when general Custard died."

"Also, there were no survivors." I was using more of an American accent than I normally did. He leaned back in his chair, unfazed.

"That's what we call a tall tale, darlin'." I grinned.

"Exceedingly tall."

"Blame our nation. We're storytellers. Join me, won't you?" Ding ding ding. Vanessa and I slid into the booth across from him. "You saw my exhibition?" He waved at a waiter.

"Highly impressive," Vanessa commented. I'd let her do some of the talking now. She was better at it than I was. I could read people like books, but I had no patience for small talk. Or patience at all. "Especially your finale."

"Well, you gotta leave them wanting more. As we say in show business." The waiter came and put two empty glasses in front of us. "Your accident is northan," he said turning back to me. "You're from America."

"I spent three years at school in New York," I answered. "The accent fended off bullies." He chuckled.

"And what might I do for you ladies?"

"We have a need for some night work," Vanessa answered.

"Oh honey, don't we all?" She leaned forward.

"I have a need for a gentleman who's comfortable with firearms and not hesitant to engage in dangerous endeavors." Made that up. But she couldn't well tell him it was because I'd seen him in a dream. "Or was all that a tall tale as well?" He fiddled with his half empty glass.

"What do you think?" His eyes locked with mine. There was already a connection between us, I'd made the first move. I was the one who was going to be able to convince him to do this. I glanced at his arm.

"Expensive watch, but threadbare jacket. So you're sentimental about the money you use to have. Your eyes are steady, but your left hand is shaking. That's the drink. So you're keeping it below the table, hoping I won't notice." He raised it and took a sip to hide his smile. "You have a cut healing on your other hand. The result of a brawl with a jealous husband, I'm guessing." His grin widened as he looked at his hand to confirm I was right. "Your boots are good quality leather, but have been resold more than once. I see a man who is accustomed to wealth but has given himself to excess and the unbridled pleasures of youth.A man much more complicated than he likes to appear."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Jesus Christ."He looked at Vanessa. "Sisters?" She nodded, smiling. He pushed the bottle of vodka in her direction. "So it's a job, this night work?" I liked him. And I didn't like many people, especially men. He was different somehow. I felt that in my dream too.

"Yes," Vanessa answered.

"Something with a criminal set up?"

"Would it matter?"

"I don't know."

"Then why else?"

"Show's heading off to Paris pretty soon."  
>"The job's tonight."<p>

"Is it a murder?"

"Would it matter?" He put his glass down and looked at me. He was harder for me to read than other people. I could tell him about the price of clothes, but not so much what he was thinking. It made me nervous. Reading other people was my line of defence. Without it I felt vulnerable.

"One smile and I say yes." I smiled without realizing I was doing what he'd asked. Vanessa handed him a piece of paper.

"Meet us at this address at 11 o'clock."

"I don't know London."

"Then ask a policeman," I suggested, coping Vanessa and getting up.

"You have names?" he called after us.

"Yes," we responded in unison.

"Are you sure he's the man?" she asked again.

"Ness, I'm sure."

"You have to be. If not, we're risking everything."

"He can help us, I saw it." I almost felt like I was convincing myself. But my dreams had never been wrong in the past. I dreamed about things that hadn't happened yet. Feelings about people I'd never met. In the dream I'd seen that man. I'd seen the circus, where to find him, I'd seen his name on the circus cart, Ethan Chandler, and I'd seen my sister. My other one. And I'd knew that he could help us. Sure enough, he met us at the address not a minune over 11. The alleyway was silent and poorly lit. But I doubted he'd asked a policeman how to find it.

"Mr. Chandler," Vanessa greeted him. "I didn't expect you to be on time."  
>"Oh, I never keep ladies waiting." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.<p>

"Very wise. This way please." I gestured for him to go in front of me. Vanessa knocked twice on one of the doors and an asian man opened a slit in the wood to look out. I waved and he opened it. The hub was full of people, but none of them were moving much. They were all asian and had bottles in their hands. It was silent and lit only with candles. Ethan looked nervous.

"Creepy, isn't it?" I whispered to him. "Don't worry, none of them can understand us anyway." A ghost of a smile passed his lips. We walked to the end of the room where a man in a top hat was talking in a hushed voice to a woman. He came over to great us. There was never any hello's with Malcolm.

"This is the individual?" he asked Vanessa even though I was the one who found him.

"Yes."

"Did you bring your weapons?" Ethan moved aside his coat to reveal his pistol. Malcolm turned to take over Vanessa's place leading the way.

"One minute," Ethan stopped him. "What are we doing here?"

"We're looking for someone. More than that you don't need to know," Malcolm told him dryly. "Do not be amazed at anything you see. And don't hesitate." They started off again.

"Coming?" I asked. He followed me. It took walking down one flight of steps to the creepy, dim lit basement for Ethan to ask another question.

"Who exactly are we looking for?" My sister, Malcolm's daughter.

"Someone very dear to me who's been taken." He opened a large door. The ceiling got lower and the air got thinner. There were pillars everywhere and the ceiling became greater. Three men were waiting for us at the end of the corridor. Or at least, they looked like men. Malcolm addressed the one in front."That which you serve, we seek." The man began to respond in another language. The one to the left stepped into the shadows. Malcolm answered him in the same one, but I couldn't understand them. Ethan had his hand on his gun. I heard a woman gasp and start crying. Vanessa looked at the ceiling. She'd heard it too. The leader turned like he was going to leave, then turned and launched himself. Malcolm hit him and he growl. Ethan grabbed me and pushed me to the side as another creature attacked. They'd been circling us the whole time.

The crying got louder and I went in the direction of it. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. Vanessa was looking around too while the men fought off the monsters. We ended up just looking at each other in confusion. If she hadn't been hearing it, I would have thought it was only in my head. Ethan started shooting. I wasn't paying attention to the fight, I had to find the source of the crying. I knew it. It was Mina. It got louder off to the right and I ran in that direction.

"Ava!" Vanessa shouted after me. I heard her shoes on the stone. It was pitch black, so I stopped and waited for her to catch up. She went in front of me taking my hand. She knew I hated the dark. The crying got louder.

"Is it Mina?" I asked softly. She didn't answer. My heart was pounding. It was because of the dark, I told myself. We followed the crying sound into another room. It wasn't pitch black anymore. But I was only grateful till I saw the bodies. Or rather, what was left of them. It was piles of what looked like muscle and bones. And definitely blood. It was all over the floor, the walls, everywhere. On the ground there was a heap of blond hair. Vanessa's hand dropped from mine as she knelt and turned the head. It wasn't Mina. scolded myself for thinking it was, for letting myself feel so much hope. For a second, I thought it was over. The woman's eyes were closed, no signs of life. But there were fang marks on her neck. Next to her was the pale body of a baby. I knelt beside it, even though I knew it was dead. I felt sick to my stomach. There were footsteps behind us. It was one of the creatures.

"Where is she?" Vanessa demanded. It was looking at me.

"Little girls shouldn't play with toys like that." The man he had once been was Spanish. He wasn't a man at all now. Vanessa stood up. I stayed on the ground because I couldn't move. What kind of creatures killed innocent babies?

"Where is your master?"

"Closer than you think. Would you like to meet him? How about you, princess?" A gun fired and the monster fell. Ethan was behind it, lowering his gun. Malcolm ran to the blonde's body.

"It's not her." Vanessa gave me a hand up.

"Are you alright?" I nodded. I wasn't, but I couldn't let her see that. Mina wasn't here, of course I wasn't alright. None of us were. Every time we had a lead it ended up like this. The Disappointment, misery, helpless. There was a growling sound and Ethan jumped back. One of the bodies was moving. It stood up, letting limbs topple off of it. Unlike the vampires, this thing couldn't be mistaken for human. It's skin was pale and it had no hair. When it growled, I could see the animal teeth and it's eyes were bright red. I had seen one before. The memory suppressed itself and made me feel numb. Ethan started firing, but the monster didn't do as much as flinch. It picked him up and threw him into a shelf.

"Ethan!" I ran to where he'd fallen and touched his arm. I saw flashes of a wolf, a woman and a little girl screaming and then blood on the walls. That happened when I touched people. I could see their secrets, but I didn't know what they meant. The monster roared in anger, going for it's next target. Vanessa stepped between it and Malcolm and it stopped. Like it was thinking about it. That gave Malcolm time to run it through with his sword. Ethan was moving, he was alright. That worked better than the bullets. He'd pierced it's heart with wood.

"She's not here," Vanessa said as I helped Ethan up.

"There must be another," Malcolm said.

"Another one of those?" I asked. "Hell no!" I really hoped not. I hoped I'd never have to see one of those things again. Malcolm leaned over the blond.

"Is there another?" he demanded. Her red eyes snapped open. "Is there another creature like that?" He turned her head towards it. Normally waking up the monsters wasn't a good idea, but when it came to Mina, Malcolm didn't care about anything else. He'd never feel that way about me. He should. After all, I was his daughter too. But I'd spent most of my life not knowing that. The vampire screamed.

"Jesus Christ!" Ethan was starting to lose it. His adrenaline was wearing out.

"Don't move, Mr. Chandler, this night's not over," Malcolm told him. No, it never was.

"Help us," I begged. "Please." I didn't want him to run. We needed him. Mina wasn't here and he and that dream were the only things left connecting me to her. The vampire woman was screeching as she tried to get away from Malcolm. I covered my ears as he drove the sword through her and her screech reached ear sharttering volume. Malcolm bundled up the body and we went for a walk. We'd done this all before, more than once. Normally it wasn't that gross. I didn't know where we were going now, but unlike Ethan, I'd learned not to ask. I was scolding myself for thinking I was going to get to talk to my sister again today. I couldn't afford hope like that. And seeing that thing made me want to crawl and into a hole and hide. Vanessa's arm nudged mine as we walked in silent comfort.

"What is this place?" Ethan asked again when we walked in the doors of yet another dark and creepy building. There were people gathered around tables, older men and young ones my age. On each table there was a dead body. I spotted organs being taken out of one of them and looked away.

"You sure take us to some nice places, Malcolm," I said sarcastically.

"Where the resurrection men claim their trade," Malcolm told me. I didn't look at what the people were doing. I'd seen enough blood for one night. "The surgeons must supply their students with ample subjects. When the legal channels are exhausted, their forced to resort to other means." We stopped in front of one of the men who was cleaning off a naked body. "I'm in need of your services, sir."

"If it isn't from the river. They're useless once the fish have got them."

"Not from the river, no."

"Well that's a blessing. Bring it round the back and see if my assistant can take you." We put the body on a stretcher and pushed it out back. There was a man leaning over a table poking at a severed arm.

"Your master said you might assist us." He didn't turn.

"I have no master."

"The piprotar up front, I mean."

"Go away."

"Rude," I said.

"I'll pay you for your time," Malcolm assured him.

"You can't afford it."

"You're very proud," Vanessa told him.

"Take it to a slaughter house, I'm not a medical practitioner. I'm engaged in research."

"You're a man with a bloody knife like everyone else out there," Ethan informed him. "So stop putting on airs." He finally looked up. He was younger than I thought, not much older than me.

"American?"

"Very clever," I said. He looked from Ethan to me and back again.

"Do you know anything about electrical currents? Your country is making such strides as we labor in the dark ages of cold and wait. Have you any experience with the principles of Calvinism?" Oh great, we got a insane.

"Oh the usual," Ethan told him. He had no idea what he was talking about.

"I have urgent an autopsy. Will you assist us?" Malcolm asked. He wasn't patient either.

"I'm occupied solely in research. I will not bore myself in explanation you could not possibly understand. Now kindly stop wasting my time and get out." Vanessa walked over to our body and took the sheet off. The doctor jumped up.

"My God." he started rambling off medical parts that the creature didn't have as he looked it over. "Trauma and penetration through the aubrilam seems the likely cause of death, but I suspect you knew that. Age of the victim is impossible to determine. The teeth seem barely use which seems unlikely given the muscular development." He grabbed a magnifying glass. "Hand me that." He pointed to a knife behind me. I gave it to him. He started to cut along where the puncture wound.

"Well, I know why the skin seems peculiar."

"Why?" Malcolm asked.

"Forceps," the doctor pointed. Vanessa handed them to him. "Because it isn't skin."

"Thank you, Albert Einstein." He ignored me. Or he was too involved to even hear.

"It's more like an exoskeleton. Like on an insect. He must have been a hearty devil."  
>"You're not kidding," Ethan muttered.<p>

"Hold on, what's this?" He pulled the skin apart. Inside of bone and muscle, there seemed to be another layer of skin. It was black and had marks carved into it that looked like some form of hieroglyphics. "Fascinating."

"Are they Egyptian?" I asked.

"Undoubtedly," Malcolm answered.

"Well," the doctor said, taking his eyes off the body for the first time since Vanessa had uncovered it. "It would appear you have an Egyptian man with no particular age who had some point in his his indeterminate life span decided to sharpen his teeth, cover himself in hieroglyphics and grow and exoskeleton, or you have something else altogether."

"I'm gonna go with option two," I muttered. We left the body with the doctor and went to leave.

"Who the fuck are you people?" Ethan asked. We didn't answer. That was a very complicated answer.

"Do you know Grandage place in Westminster?" Malcolm asked him.

"I could find it."

"Number eight. Come at noon tomorrow." He didn't do goodbye's either.

"Unless you'd rather spend the rest of your life shoot clay targets and telling lies," Vanessa said.

"Goodbye Ethan," I smiled at him knowing he'd be on time again.

I was sitting on the stairs when Sembene, our doorman, let him. He looked around for a moment before his eyes rested on me.

"Hello Ethan," I said cheerfully. I knew he'd come.

"Nice house."

"It's not mine." By the time I'd reached the bottom of the steps, he'd already wandered into Malcolm's study.

"Not what you expected?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"Will your sister be joining us?"

"Only of Sembene tells her you're here." He was still my man. And Ethan deserve some answers. Malcolm and Vanessa wouldn't give them. We were all untrusting, but I felt bad for Ethan. And I wanted to play with him; just a little.

"I'm Ava Ives. My sister's Vanessa. Come this way." I turned before he could respond. I lead him into the library and shut the door. He let out a breath.

"It's my favorite room too. Tea?"

"No thanks." He paced to the fireplace as I sat behind a table covered in tarot cards. I had a feeling he saw the pentagram pattern that covered the entire floor, though he didn't mention it. "So you're a fortune reader?"

"Mmm, I don't like that term."

"Spiritualist?"

"If you like."

"Wrapping on the table, voices from the great beyond?" I laughed.

"No." I started to divide the cards. "So you're a skeptic?"

"Not about everything. Last night for example."

"And you want an explanation?" It wasn't a question. I'd be dying if I were him.

"I think I should see Sir Malcolm." Even Ethan saw me as a child who couldn't understand him. I knew exactly how he felt, I lived it. Adults keeping things from me even though I was no longer a child. Or maybe it was because I was a woman which was equally as worse. But I knew that Ethan was different.

"I can speak for him." I spread the second half of the deck over the table. "Do you believe in other words, Mr. Chandler? A half world between what we know and what we fear? A place in the shadows rarely seen but deeply felt. Do you believe that?

"Yes." I looked up at him. I hadn't expected him to answer so quickly.

"That's where we were last night. Where some souls are forced to live always. If your believe in curses-" the door opened and Vanessa came in.

"Cards already? You must have really won her over, Mr. Chandler." I wondered how long she'd been listening outside the door. "Tell me, are you a wise man?" I grinned at the table.

"Not especially."

"A wise man would walk away from this house and make a concerted effort to forget everything that acquired last night." She put her hands on the back of my chair. "He would not look back."

"That sounds like a warning."

"It's an invitation." She liked him. And Vanessa didn't like many people, especially when it came to their interaction with me. "Should you be so unwise as to entertain the idea, we have continued use of a man of your skills. Your kind of man." I started making stacks of two with the remain cards.

"And what kind of man is that?"

"One of great violence and hidden depths. You play your role well, Mr. Chandler, but this is not who you are." He put his hat down and leaned across the table.

"Tell me what this is all about." I glanced at Vanessa.

"Sir Malcolm's daughter was taken by a creature such as the one we killed."

"She's also my half sister," I added.

"Sir Malcolm's your father?"

"Biologically. And he's not Vanessa's, other side of the family, but that's not the point. I was there when the thing took her. We didn't think there was another."

"There's much we don't know and must discover," Vanessa agreed.

"So what you're part in all this?" he asked her.

"My part is my own."

"I've been a hired gun before. Doesn't suit me. There's no exultation in killing for gold." He'd leave, but he'd come back. How could he resist it, he was invested now.

"A wise man after all," Vanessa praised him. "Sebene has your money at the door, he'll show you out. I hope you enjoy your life as an actor, it seems to be what you're suited for." I was smiling at him.

"If you do find yourself in that half world we spoke of and seek to escape it, you know our address."

"And what do you seek to escape?" He asked Vanessa. He was wiser than he made himself out to be. He read people in the same way I did, lived off it.

"Perhaps the same thing you do. We all have our curses, don't we? Good day, Mr. Chandler."

"Miss Ives."

"Wait," I said as he passed me. "Pick a card." He went to reach for one. "Not like that! You have to think about it. You have to let them work on you." He gave me a look so I scooted my chair closer to him. Vanessa backed up so I could play my game. The tarot cards were my thing, she didn't like them. She didn't like anything to do with the supernatural.

"Look into my eyes," I ordered Ethan. To my surprise, he did. "Believe." He reached for a card again, not breaking eye contact with me. He chose out of the inner circle. The lovers. I smiled.

"You can go now."

"You're not going to tell me what it means?"

"What does it mean to you?" I said cryptically. After he'd left, Vanessa and I found Malcolm at his hallway desk. He had a lot of desks.

"Was he tempted?"

"Intrigued I would say," Vanessa answered him.

"Then he'll be back."

"He's intending to leave town."

"He won't. We won't let him. I'll require you both in an hour. We have an appointment." I hate those. It meant talking to stupid people.

"Where are we going?" I asked. He was looking at the picture of his children. The two that weren't me. He looked at it a lot. It was taken before I was born when Mina and Peter were very young. Peter had been my older brother. He'd died before he even knew that.

"Amongst dead things." I didn't want to look at the picture anymore, so I left without more questions. More dead things, more blood, more monsters. Turned out it was a museum owned by rich people who were all obsessed with Egyptian artifacts. The butler showed us into one of the offices. The man who greeted us had a huge smile on his face and hair like a circus person.

"Mr. Lyle," Malcom shook his hand.

"Sir Malcolm! Oh it is you. The photograph in your book does you no justice. Say you will inscribe it for me? Your book I mean. It's something deeply personal." He was using a French accent and I was pretty sure he wasn't from France. I gave Vanessa a look. She held her finger to her lips. She was much better at pretending to be a polite, proper woman. I would have rather looked at all the artifacts that lined the shelves of the room than listen to the men talk.

"It would be a pleasure. Vanessa and Ava Ives," he introduced us.

"Could I be more charmed?" he kissed Vanessa's hand. "No I could not." He kissed mine and resisted the urge to yank it away and hit him with it. "And what brings you the humble confines of the department of Egyptian artifacts?"

"What are these?" I'd found a large glass tank of bugs feasting on the on a very old looking skull.

"Oh, carrion beetles. We employ them when the usual solvents are deemed to embracive. They eat the flesh don't you know? Sorry my dear it's a bit ghoulish to the lame person." Lame person?

"Very exotic. Where do they come from?" Vanessa asked. I could see her reflection coming through from the other side of the tank. She grinned at me and I knew that from her position Circus Hair couldn't see. I grinned back.

"Actually Waveny in Suffolk."

"Not exotic at all." She'd known that before she asked him. She had her own ways of playing with people that were far more discrete than mine. I envied her for that.

"Mr. Lyle, I was hoping you could assist me." Malcolm broke up the game. " I have a bit of hieroglyphics in need of translating." I paced around the room looking at the different objects and models. Malcolm laid the photographs I took of the creature's markings on the table. Peter had gotten me my own camera for my ninth birthday. I'd been obsessed with it for months.

"These aren't from a scroll, what are they?"

"They're from a tattoo-"

"On a corpse," I added cheerfully and Vanessa turned towards the window to hide her laughter at the look on Circus Hair's face.

"Oh. What have you got for me then? Late arphic spirit, eighteenth dynasty, peopahes earlier-" Vanessa was looking at a cage of birds and they started bouncing off the walls crazily. Lyle looked up at the noise and then continued. "Conjoined in this fashion they translate roughly to an idea meaning blood cure or transformation. Or there is a theory of something more along the lines of a malediction. A blood curse." I looked up from the egyptian cat statue I'd been inspecting. "Trust me, those Egyptians were rather madcat when it came to specifics. All very metaphoric." He started using his magnifying glass again to inspect the photographs. I wished we'd just brought him the body. I wouldn't have been acting so posh then. He got very quiet.

"Are there more of these?" His eyes were wide.

"Yes," Malcolm answered. He rose himself back up in the chair.

"I should like to see them. But not here. The British museum is no place for actual scholarship, after all." No, of course not. "And before I engage in professional matters, I feel it is vital to engage in social conquests. Get to know the sort of people one is working with, do you understand?" Oh dear lord. "My wife and I entertain on occasion. Lavishly you can be sure, she's absurdly rich. We're having a little gathering Friday next, perhaps you and the ladies could join us." Please say no.

"This is a matter of some urgency."

"Good heavens, Malcolm. There hasn't been anything urgent about the Egyptians for two thousand years. And I'm dreadfully busy, you understand? Ever so many papyri to translate." Vanessa and Malcolm were exchanging a glance. "Isn't that a delicious word? Papyri? Sounds like something eaten by little Persian boys, doesn't it?" He acted stupid and rich, but he wasn't. He was a businessman and a good one at that. "So, I'll see you Friday the next?" It wasn't a question.

"As you wish." When Malcolm stood, I had for the door.

"Bring the rest of the photographs with you and we'll take a peek." They shook hands. "Such an infinite pleasure meeting you."

"Our pleasure, Mr. Lyle" Vanessa said.

"Good day. I do assume you know the source of the writing?"

"No." How long was it going to take to to get out this damn door?

"It's from the Egyptian book of the dead." Everything was either dead or about it, so that didn't surprise me.

"Are you sure there's absolutely no other Egyptian scholars in England?" I asked as we walked out into the cold air.

"Ava," Malcolm said roughly, lengthening his stride away from us.

"The man's a scam artist!" I shouted after him but he didn't turn. Vanessa sighed and slipped her arm through mine.

"It's a good thing you're a better one, then."

The storm kept rattling the windows in my room and causing them to fly open. I was trying to read to distract myself from how much I hated the atmosphere the storm caused, but every time the windows opened I had to run to shut them before the rain flooded into my room. Vanessa had gone to bed hours ago. I watched Malcolm get out of his carriage and come inside. I'd been waiting up for him. I couldn't sleep unless he was here. I felt like if I went to sleep Vanessa would need me.

As I watched him walk safely into the house, I shut the windows for what I hoped would be the final time. Stupid broken things. I kept a single gas light on while I slept so that if I woke up, I wouldn't be surrounded in darkness. As I walked towards the bed to climb into it, I heard crying. I froze in the middle of the floor, then practically ran down the hallway to Vanessa's room. With a candle of course because there were no lights. She was fast asleep. I stood in the doorway watched her for a few moments. She wasn't having a nightmare. I went back to my room, telling myself I'd imagined it. Then I heard it again. It was more like gasping, a woman who was very frightened.

"Mina?" I called softly. Then I saw her. She was standing against the door looking like she'd just come in from walking in the rain. She was shaking and her hair was plastered to her head with water. She was wearing the same dress she was the day I last saw her. I walked towards her, not believing what I was seeing. "Oh my God." The window flew open again catching my attention and when I turned back again she was standing right in front of me. Her eyes were red like the vampire's and she let an animal scream. The lamp went out and my scream continued after her's faded.

"Ava?!" There were footsteps coming towards me and the light of a candle. I breathed again as Vanessa ran to me. "Are you alright? Sweetheart, you're shaking, come here." She held me while I shivered against her. "Did the storm blow the lights out?"

"I saw Mina," I said tearfully. I felt her stiffen. "I saw Mina, I saw Mina."

"Where?" I pointed to the doorway.

"But it wasn't Mina, she was a vampire," I sniffed.

"Mina was a vampire?" I nodded. She hugged me again. "It's alright. I'm here now. Nothing's going to hurt you."

"What the devil is going on?" Malcolm was standing in the doorway. "Shut that damn window, it's flooding the carpet."

I watched him take another drink of scotch. This was his third glass. He'd been staring into space for a good fifteen minutes not saying anything.

"Are you sure?" he asked me for the hundredth time. I nodded. "Was it an appeal?"

"I don't know." Vanessa was staring into the fire. She hadn't said anything either. "She looked scared at first. Then she changed."

"If it was Mina, she'd do you no harm," Vanessa told me without moving. "Our nature doesn't change, only our circumstance." She was trying to reassure me, but Malcolm was having none of it.

"You don't know!" She looked at him.

"Don't I? Was I not responsible? But for my transgression, none of this-"

"Ness," I cut her off.

"We cannot unmake the past," Malcolm continued. "We shall live with our guilt, the three of us." My guilt was bigger than there's. I was there when it took her. I let go of her hand. "After all this time... I will find her." He got up to leave, then turned back, looking at me. "I went on a lion hunt many years ago. Moving through the tall glass, getting a glimpse of the prey. The shoulders mostly the mane. You prepare your rifle, you're very quiet, and then there's a moment. The wind changes, the grass stops swaying. The lion turns, looks at you. That moment you realize you are no longer the hunter, you are the prey."

I stayed in the drawing room that night, not wanting to go back to my room. I could have followed Vanessa upstairs, but I knew she wanted to be alone. We all did. I watched the sun come up and shook away all the memories of the person my sister had been. I'd always been closer to her than Vanessa. The two of them had always been together. And I was so much younger than them, I use to have to run to tail along. Vanessa hated it, told me I was ruining their fun, but Mina always included me. She'd help me build sandcastles on the beach. And when I couldn't sleep I'd go to her room and we'd watch sunrises like this together. I wanted to pretend she was there with me now. The real Mina, not the monster. But in my heart I knew that Mina was dead. Malcolm was looking for his daughter, but what he'd find would be something else entirely. He'd never understand that. He'd look for her until the day he died. And I'd help him because I wanted so much to believe there was a way I could save her.


	2. Seance

"Ness, the rude doctor is here." She was writing at her desk. She did that a lot. She never told me what she was writing, but I had a pretty good idea. "Malcolm made the mistake of letting the animal in the house."

"Do try and behave yourself." She put the paper back in the desk and followed me.

"But it's so boring." He was waiting at the bottom of the steps as Malcolm greeted him.

"Doctor Frankenstein. Thank you for coming." He wasn't a real doctor, he'd said so himself. "You remember miss Ives and Ava."

"How do you do?" Oh, now he's nice.

"Doctor." I nodded in his direction. Malcolm lead the way to the basement.

"And how are your researches going, Doctor?"

"I would say distinctly promising." I hated this place. It was like the basement of death.

"You are usual jovial." Vanessa took my hand without thinking about it because it was dark. Sometimes I Thought she was as afraid of it as I was.

"The wonders of science, miss Ives." Malcolm turned on the gas light over the autopsy table. I still didn't like it. "God," the doctor rest of the skin, or exoskeleton, had been removed from the creature so all of the marks were revealed. "How did you remove the skin."

"Carrion beetles," I said with a grin.

"Essex?"

"Suffolk," Vanessa answered.

"Far enough." He glanced at the light. "Well, this won't last forever, so let's get to it." He started digging around in his bag for instruments. "Have you translated the hieroglyphics?"

"We're about to," Malcolm told him. "They're apparently from the Egyptian book of the dead"

"Ah."

"Do you know it?"

"Not intimately." He pierced the creature with a small needle. I leaned in to see if it had blood. "I've studied theologically over the years." How old was he? Maybe he was one of those child genius, like Mozart. The creature did have blood and he was drawing it out in a syringe. "The ancient Egyptian religion is rather unique in away. They had a singular goal: transportation to an afterlife or something even more profound. Eternal life." He held up the blood to the light. I hadn't realized how much I'd been leaning over. When he stood up, our faces were inches from each other. I moved back feeling a strange jolt in my stomach. "But I'm no expert."

"We're seeing a specialist. On Friday in fact. I'll let you know what we discover."

"That won't be necessary. I'm merely a dabbler." He had a book in his bag that I recognized. I brushed his arm with mine and let the flashes come. I saw him in a dark room standing over a dead body. It's eyes opened and it breathed. Proteus.

"Romantic poetry, doctor?" I asked.

"Man does not live only In the empirical world. We must seek the ephemeral Or why live?

"'If disbelief from heaven be sent, such be nature's holy plan.'" He looked up at me in surprise.

"'Have I not reason to lament-"

"'What man has made of man,'" we finished together. Vanessa coughed.

"Shall we find some better light?" We went back upstairs and the doctor leaned over his microscope.

"Well, I can confirm that it's human blood." He said some medical terms I didn't understand. "The more unusual prospects are beyond my expertise. You may want to talk to hematologist." He started packing up.

"Then I'll find one and you'll consult with him," Malcolm said.

"I'm not sure that I have the time-"  
>"No, you will." He pulled out an envelope of money and handed it to him. "Your remittance. I hope it's satisfactory."<p>

"I'm sure it will be. Good afternoon, Sir Malcolm. Ladies. And if you discover anything pertinent in the hieroglyphics, let me know."

"Or even something ephemeral." He smiled in response and I heard the front door open. Vanessa was staring at me.

"What was all that poetry."

"The doctor has a secret. He's been bringing people back to life in his spare time."

"How could you possibly know that?" Malcolm demanded. I shrugged. He wouldn't understand if I told him I could see people's thoughts when my skin touched theirs.

"Just a feeling."

I knocked lightly on Vanessa's door and then opened it. She was putting on a neckles in the mirror and turned when I shut the door behind me. Her purple dressed swirled around her feet, hanging her body in all the right places. I envied how effortless she looked, like she dressed like that everyday. She beamed as she looked at me.

"You look beautiful."

"I do not, I'm having a crisis." I smoothed the silk like fabric of my own blue gown to my side. "A hair crisis." She gestured for me to sit on her bed. I felt her fingers brushing through my curls.

"You know, I always envied these."

"Really?"

"Yes really," she laughed. "Leave it down, you're perfect." I rolled my eyes. She went over to her dresser and pulled out a clip then sat behind me again to put in. I glanced out reflection in the mirror. We'd never looked alike. My hair was much darker and curler than hers. Her eyes were green and mine were blue and she held herself with much more confidence, especially wearing a dress. It looked all wrong on me. Like a dress on an animal. I heard the doorbell ring.

"That would be the couch. Oh, Ava, it's only for one night. Enjoy yourself."

"I don't even know how to walk in these shoes." She laughed and helped me up. Lyle lived almost completely across London, so the ride was long. It gave me time to get nervous. I didn't like large crowds of people, too much energy. I felt like I was being suffocated by all of it. When we pulled up outside the house it was exactly what I'd expected. Well dressed rich people walking in and out of a huge house. Inside it was lavishly decorated and full of people holding wine glasses. Soft classical music was playing and there was an overwhelming amount of things going on at once.

"Sir Malcolm, sir Malcolm!" Lyle rushed over from the groups of people to greet us. "And the Ive girls. I'm so glad you could attend. Thank you for coming to my wee fete." I didn't know much French, but I assumed that meant little party. This was not little, there had to be hundreds of people packed into the first floor of this house.

"Thank you for having us," Vanessa said.

"I have the additional photographs in my couch." It seemed Malcolm disliked parties as much as I did.

"How forthright he have served him in the darkness of Africa. " Lyle said to Vanessa and me as if he wasn't standing right there. "My wife is somewhere about, close by the gin, I would hazard." I sniffled a laugh. "In the parlor, prepares." All of these rooms looked like parlors to me. "Why don't the two of you make an introduction?" Why did all the women have to group together to be left out of men's conversations like children? I stayed close to Vanessa as we walked into the next room. This was where the music was coming from and there were even more people in there because of it.

"You see how that woman is tipping towards him?" Vanessa whispered in my ear, nodding towards a couple near the far wall. "She's so drunk she's about to stumble and then he'll catch her. He'll make it seem like he's being a gentleman, but really he wants an excuse to-" the woman tripped and the man held out his arms to catch her, one of them brushing her chest. I laughed, the sound mixing with many others in echoless room. "Your turn." I looked around.

"That man by the doorway, he's watching us. He's going to come over and introduce himself to you." The man started towards us. "And I'm going to get a drink." She reached for my hand but I was already too far away. She gave me a desperate look as I slipped into the crowd. She'd get me back for it later. I liked the sound of the music so I walked towards it, swiping a glass of a try a man in a black pin suit was carrying around. I let the champion pass my lips. It felt cool going down my throat and tasted sweet. I wandered around, watching the people and estimating their motives calmed my nerves. I looked back towards Vanessa and saw her standing far to close to that man. That wasn't like her at all. Maybe she knew him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!" Lyle's voice cut over the music and the chatter. He clapped his hands louder until everyone was looking in his direction. "Your attention please, you must pay attention to me." I started making my way towards my sister. "My friends, our guest of honor has arrived. My I present the renowned madame Kali!" A woman with a crown like headdress and a dramatic face entered from behind a curtain. Everyone cheered.

"Oh good lord," I muttered, falling into place Vanessa's side. It was a psychic woman. The entertainment for the night, no doubt.

"Dorian Grey," the man who approached Vanessa was holding out his hand to me.

"Ava Ives," I said, more interested in the woman.

"So come along, come along the table those of you without fear," Lyle called. "We need at least eight people of courage." The next thing I knew Vanessa was grabbing my hand because Dorian had grabbed her other one and was dragging her towards the table. She was getting me back. I gave her a disdainful look as I took the seat the seat to her left. Lyle, Malcolm a man and two women made up the other five members of the circle. Madame Kali was the ninth member. I wondered if the number nine meant something special or if it was just because that's how many chairs Lyle could find. The room got very quiet as the lights were dimmed and the candles on the table were lit. Just when I thought a party couldn't get any worse, they had to start the bullshit festival.

"Gentlemen, please remove jewelry," Madame Kali ordered in a dramatic voice.

"What's going on?" Dorian whispered. He should be the last one asking that since it was his fault I was sitting here. I'd also noticed he'd pulled out Vanessa's chair for her. And she'd let him.

"Ladies, please remove your gloves."

"I believe we're about to commune with the spirits."

"Ooo," I added dramatically and he smiled. He was handsome at least.

"Please, join hands." Oh, here we go. Everyone faced their hands palm down on the glass table in front of us. "I ask forbearance. I ask you to suspend your disbelief." I gave Vanessa a look and she shrugged. Was she going to be alright with this? It wasn't real of course, but still. "Imagine your minds floating In the darkness of time." Madame Kali closed her eyes. "Let your imaginations be liberate and roam with me." The woman to my right looked terrified. Madame Kali continued in a dramatic whisper. "Back in time to the ancient seas. Back in time to the time before when the spirits walked, when the sun was new and the old gods walked." I met eyes with Malcolm across the table and raised my eyebrows.

"I call forth mut, Mother goddess." Vanessa's hand covered mine and I looked up. "I call to the speakers of the dead." She was looking at the table. She shouldn't be doing this it was bad for her. "Come to me. Come to me." I was about to tug Vanessa up when Madame Kali gasped loudly and her head flew back. Everyone in the room jumped back in surprise. She started to speak in a lower voice directed at the table.

"What summoned me? I speak for the dead." I was getting a familiar feeling in my chest. A heavy feeling, like I was standing on the top of a large cliff about to jump. "For the undying." I met eyes with Malcolm again. He was looking at Vanessa. I tugged on her hand.

"Ness-"

"Don't break the circle, you'll let the evil spirits out!" the woman to my right said frantically.

"Lady-" I started, but I was cut off by Madame Kali who was now staring directly in my direction.

"There is another here." Her voice was back to normal. Vanessa gripped my hand harder. "There is... another here." I could barely hear her voice it was so soft. No longer dramatic, no longer a show. This was very real. I saw a flicker in the glass table. Movement behind me. "Amunet." I shouldn't have been able to hear her, but I somehow could. I should have been getting up and taking Vanessa with me, but I couldn't move. I didn't want to, I wanted to see what would happen next. "Amunet. Amunet..." her head snapped around and her voice was different again. "Amunet! Serpent. Hidden one. No, your master. Your lover. Your master-"

Vanessa's head snapped back and she gasped like Madame Kali had. Her neck was contouring in an unnatural way, her eyes rolling to the ceiling. I knew if I let go it would break the circle and make it worse. I could see Malcolm's startled reflection in the table's surface. Vanessa slumped limply in her chair. She made a sound almost like the whirling as a clock as she raised her head. Her hand was still gripping mine. She started speaking in language that sounded African, her eyes not leaving the table. Then she looked at Malcolm.

"Father." I tried to yank my hand away, but found that I couldn't. I wasn't going anywhere. Her voice was high pitched like a child when she spoke, her eyes widening in excitement. "Father mine, let me come with you. What a ripping time we'll have. Let me come with you. It will be an adventure, you'll teach me. I'll prove myself a proper explorer. Peter loves you, Father." I knew before she said it who had taken over my sister's body. I couldn't have moved now if I'd wanted to. Something changed and she started breathing shakily at some unseen danger. I noticed that she'd grabbed Dorian's hand to and she raised both our hands up as she gasped.

"But Father, if the porters go, how are we to survive? I'm not frightened, I'm not. What an adventure. It's so green, so beautiful. But the porters are dying and I can't go on, I'm sick. Is it the dysentery?" I felt tears running down my face. "I'm bleeding. Oh God, I'm bleeding. I'm shitting blood now. I have no more clean trousers. I'm sorry! I'll stay at base camp, you go. Leave me." I looked at Malcolm. he was breathing hard, staring at her like he wasn't sure weather to be defensive and angry or break down crying. The other people around the table and in the room probably had looks of shock and horror on their faces, but I didn't see any of them. I didn't even think of them.

The last time I'd seen my brother was four years ago. He'd come to America on a ship to get me from school and then came back with me. It had taken a toll on him, he was always sickly. He hadn't known he was my brother, neither had I, but he always acted like he was so it would have made no difference. When he left for Africa with his father, I knew I'd never see him again. He was already sick from the voyage to retrieve me. Another long trip and more travel would kill him. And it had.

"Will you name a mountain after me? Are you proud of me? Go!" The candles blew out and the woman beside me gasped loudly. She fell back against her chair, letting my hand drop, but not letting it go. Her eyes never once left Malcolm. "Goodbye. I'll see you soon, Father. Father..." Malcolm was letting out harsh breaths as he tried to control his emotions. The room was deathly silent. "Cold." She took a shaky breath a tear falling down her cheek. "'Close the window my true love and gently drops the rain. I have never had but one true love..." Her eyes were on the ceiling now, but her thumb ran circles on my hand. Peter use to sing me that song when I couldn't sleep and I'd crawled into his bed. So had Mina. It was something their mother us to do for them, but my mother would never do for me.

"I am...weak. I can't feel my hands. And there's no water." She made a choked sound. "I can't swallow. You knew I was dying, didn't you, Father? Did you name... a mountain... after me?" Silent tears were flooding my cheeks and blurring my vision. She let out a long breath and her eyes glazed over slightly. The silence seemed to go on forever, but I knew she wasn't dead because she was gripping my hand even tighter than she had been before. She suddenly started making a sound like a clock being wound up, reaching up her hand that wasn't holding mine to undo the clasp in her hair with her eyes closed. Peter was gone. A monster had taken his place. And it was a monster I knew very well. Her head spun around to look at Madame Kali.

"Amunet, girl? No. Much older." The glass table cracked from where our hands were conjoined, passing all the way across the table until the surface was covered in them. There was gasping and everyone jumped back. The doors slammed shut and no doubt locked. "Father, Mina's waiting!" Malcolm stood up, looking furious. "No!" Her head turned slowly to me. "Shhh." Her voice changed to childlike again.

"I wonder, I wonder when was the moment he knew he wanted to fuck her?" Her fingernails were dancing over hand in a death grip. "Or why wasn't he more discrete? Vanessa heard them. The two of them." She turned back to Malcolm. "She heard you fucking and she was curious. She walked closer, she rounded the corner and discovered you. You know. Fucking. Vanessa saw that." Her hand finally dropped mine as she threw her chair backwards. Someone grabbed mine and shifted it over. Dorian. His eyes were still focused on her, but he put his arm around me.

"Fucking animal." She started climb across the table towards Malcolm. "You man, you animal. You man, you animal. Betrayer! Creature!" She stood, staring at the ceiling. "I look into his eyes and they are red with blood like from Peter's ass. And it's so cold and dark and wet like the jungle. Like tears. I am crying. I am so afraid, Father. Find me, find me! Save me, save me!" She started to bend backwards, chanting in another language. The room was full of woman's screams. I leaned into Dorian's shoulder because he was there. I felt when they left, felt when she was her again. The woman were all running towards the doors and she flew through them, bursting out the front into the rain. I stared after. There were people running everywhere scrambling for their bags to run to the exit. I felt like I was drowning in them, drowning on the air, staring into the abyss where she'd disappeared with nothing to cling to as I fell. I didn't even notice I stood up till my knees buckled.

"Woh, woh, woh. Sit." Dorian's hands helped me back into a chair. "I'll go after her. I'll be right back." I watched him leave to. I didn't even know him. The room was quiet and empty. And it was dark, but I didn't care. Malcolm hadn't moved at all. We were on opposite sides of the broken table. Both staring into space, not acknowledging each others presence. Locked in our individual hells of misery and guilt. It seemed we sat their for hours. There weren't many thoughts in my head. It was just blank and quiet. Numb. Dorian didn't come back. I hadn't realized I was waiting for him. Lyle creaked the door open and I looked up at the sudden burst of light.

"I'm sorry about your table," I said softly. My voice was hoarse, though I hadn't been crying out loud.

"It's- it's quite alright, my dear." He turned to Malcolm. "Your couch is waiting." He got up, so I followed. The rain was pouring down. I hoped Dorian had found her and made sure she got home. I knew she would. We didn't talk in the couch either. When it stopped in front of the house, I ran in past Sembene and up the stairs. There was a body huddled under the covers. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I was dripping wet, but I crawled into the bed next to her anyway. After a while, I felt her put her arms around me. I turned and curled up against her. We listened to the sound of the rain until we fell asleep, holding each other because there was nothing else in the world to hold.


	3. Resurection

Not spilling tea was hard. My hand had never been steady and this house had far too many steps. I was carrying it up to Vanessa and the only thing I was thinking about it was not spilling it on Malcolm's stairs. He'd literally murder me. When I got to the top, I felt the tugging. The stomach flutters, the standing on a cliff about to jump feeling. I'd learned to ignore it, to block out, look straight ahead and keep going like nothing was happening. I didn't like to see ghosts, I doubted anybody did. But I saw them far more often than normal people. They were all around us. If I walked down a busy street, I sometimes couldn't discern between the living and the dead. It wasn't a problem unless they saw me and most of the time they didn't. They lived on another plane and I was simply a window. They had to look out it to see that I was different from the others. This feeling told me that a ghost had looked and I was going to try my best not to look back. Ignoring what was happening was the fastest way to make it stop. But then the noises started.

It sounded like I was in the jungle. I could hear a monkey screeching, an elephant stamping their feet. This normally only happened if I touched someone and was seeing their memories. I was standing in my hallway, there was no one to touch. It was so loud that I wanted to cover my ears. All of the animals screeching in unison. But it was in my head, I couldn't escape it. It got dark, like someone had drawn the shades over all the windows to block out the sun.

"Ava." When I turned around, there was a terrified blond woman looking back at me. The teacup fell to the floor but I didn't hear it shatter. "Help me."

"Mina?" I asked breathlessly. "Where are you?" She was cowering from things I couldn't see.

"They're all around me."

"What are?" I wasn't afraid anymore, I just wanted to get to her.

"The beasts that feed at night. And they are hungry. Please, save me." I blinked and it was light again. She was gone and I heard the teacup shatter. For a second I considered running into Vanessa's room, but then thought better of it and ran to Malcolm instead. It had been a week since the party, but my sister wasn't completely back yet. Though she kept telling me she was. She wanted to be alone a lot which was hard for me because I would have been content with watching her around the clock. Malcolm was in his study, the first place I looked, leaning over papers.  
>"I need to talk to you."<p>

"What is it? Is Vanessa alright?"

"She's fine. But I think Mina's at the zoo."

"No, no, no. I'd say we'd do better to come off the boardwalk up by Chester Road." Malcolm and Vanessa were looking at a map of London planning our next field trip. I was looking out the window watching the man walk up to the door and Semene let him in.

"Sir, Mr. Chandler is here." Malcolm looked up and and Vanessa glanced at me.

"Send him in," Malcolm ordered. "Did you know he was coming?"

"No," I answered. "But I knew you'd come back." He was walking into the room and taking off his hat. I smiled at the floor.

"Sir. Miss Ives. Ava."

"Mr. Chandler?" Vanessa said in confusion.

"I'll not waste your time. I'm looking for money. I'll work for it."

"Well, I must say your timing could not be more virtuous. We're intending to undertake another expedition."

"Whatever it is, yes." What had changed? He hadn't shown any interest in money before. I had feeling it wasn't for himself. Nothing with Ethan ever was.

"Miss Ives will explain the details as far as she sees fit. Excuse me." At least he knew when to leave room when he couldn't be a help to anybody. When he was gone I moved away from the window and sat on the map table.

"Are you seeking passage back to America then?" Vanessa asked, sitting in the seat closest to me.

"Not much for me there. Except my father. And no love lost between us." His relationship with his father was like mine with Malcolm. Non exetenant. I could tell when I saw another orphaned child. It was a special kind of sadness hidden behind his eyes.

"You don't miss your home?" Vanessa asked. I was still inspecting him.

"Landscape's nice. Legal system less so. Sir Malcolm hasn't found her?" He gestured at the map I was sitting on with his hat.

"No, we've been looking for the best part of a year," I told him. "But she came to me."

"I take it you don't mean knocked on the door and said hello." There was something in his voice that changed when he was talking to me. It was less rough, kinder. I liked that. I shook my head. Vanessa stayed quiet, waiting to see what I would tell him. Only she knew about the things I could do. Malcolm chose to ignore it, but secretly he knew too.

"I see things sometimes. I'm affected- Ness and I are affected by forces beyond our world." It wasn't difficult telling him. It was almost liberating. I wanted him to know. I shrugged. "You don't question that." Please, please believe me.

"There's a lot I question about all this. But not that." I felt a smile spread over my face. Vanessa invited him to sit.

"So, what we're planning here-"

"What happened to Mina?" he asked me. Talking about me was easy. Talking about her, not so much. She was my secret. And I barely knew this man. Vanessa glanced at my face for a second before answering the question for me.

"She was working as a governess and became engage to a Mr. Jonathan Harker." These were all things I'd told her. I'd been staying with Mina at the time. Those were the three years of happiness after the rain but before the storm. "But then she became embroiled with another man. But not entirely a man, something else altogether. Perhaps one of many like him, we don't know. This creature influenced her behavior. And now she has become his slave. Hovering between our world and his." That was what we hoped was happening. And I wished it had been that simple.

"Who's the man?" He was asking all the same questions I would ask.

"If man he be. We don't know."

"But you think you know where she is?"

"We might," I said happy with the new direction of the conversation. "Have you ever been to London zoo?"

Zoo's where much scarier in the dark. I loved animals. I never thought they were frightening, even the lions. But the darkness made everything evil. The monkeys were screeching in their cages. Animals stomped their hooves angrily as we passed their exhibits. I was jumping at shadows.

"You had a vision of Mina here?" Ethan asked. I hadn't noticed how close I'd shifted to him. "That's it?" I was walking between him and Vanessa, Malcolm and Sembene were a few steps behind.

"She wouldn't have appeared to me unless she was in trouble. And I only heard the zoo noises, I didn't see it." Vanessa closed her eyes. She could open herself more to this place than I could. She could feel the energy. I watched her closely until her eyes opened again. She shook her head.

"Let's carry on then." I hadn't noticed Malcolm pull Ethan aside. What was he saying to him? Vanessa lead the way now and Ethan was keeping an unusually sharp eye on her. Damn it Malcolm. Vanessa stopped in front of a large cage.

"Is she here?" Malcolm asked impatiently.

"Shh." She held out her hand and I took it. Something large moved in the darkness to our left. "There's something wrong here." Malcolm didn't seem surprised. The darkness was getting to me and I hated this, but something about the way he was looking at me made my senses sharper.

"What haven't you told me?" Vanessa demanded. There was a loud growling sound and I turned to see a wolf standing on the path. Ethan cokced his guns. There was another, loud growling noise between us. They had us surrounded. I pressed myself up against Vanessa's side. Malcolm pointed his gun.

"Don't fire," Ethan ordered. "Don't move." I wasn't moving anywhere if I wanted to. "Ava, don't jump." A wolf passed me so closely that it brushed the hem of my dress. I shut my eyes until it was gone. It joined three other ones all in front of us now. Ethan didn't take his own advice as he moved to the front like he was challenging them. One of the wolves left the others and stepped towards him. I held my breath. He slowly put his guns back in his belt like it was peace offering. He went down to his knees and held out his hand. I wanted to shout at him to get back, but the logical side of my brain was telling me to trust him. The wolf came closer so it was only inches from him. I was waiting for it to attack, but it didn't. It's teeth inclosed around his hand, but he didn't flinch. I remembered the flashes I'd saw when I touched him. There had been a wolf in his memories, there was some sort of connection. The wolf backed off. It left and the other three followed it. Ethan stood up and we all started at him.

"Let's go. Vanessa was looking at Malcolm like he was the one who just telepathically scared the wolfs away. Ethan lead the way down a path to another section of the zoo. We stopped at the monkey cage. There was a large hole in it big enough for them to escape from, but they weren't running. I walked up to the cage and threaded my fingers through the bars.

"Hello there," I said to one of the babies who was sucking on his hand. "Hello."

"No, you can not have it," Malcolm said walking past me. I glared in his direction. The monkey batted his eyes at me then turned his head. I followed it's gaze. There was a man on the ground feasting on brown fur. The vampire looked up and went for the person closest to him, Vanessa. Ethan knocked it back and aimed his gun.

"No, Mr. Chandler," Malcolm said as I ran to join them. "We shall need some sturdy chains I think."

"We're keeping it?" I demanded. "We can keep that thing, but you won't let me keep the monkey?" We lugged the vampire back into town and chained him up in the basement. There was no way I was sleeping knowing that thing was down here, so I hoped whatever Malcolm wanted to do, it would be quick. The vampire didn't put up much of a struggle. He'd seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. He was younger than the ones I'd seen before. He looked to have been fifteen or sixteen when he was still alive. I wondered if there was a mother out there still looking for her son. She'd look at the sky every night and pray for her son to return home safely to her, but he never would. Malcolm knelt beside the boy vampire. I stood back where there was more light from the open door at the top of the stairs.

"What was your name?"

"My name is Fenton." He turned his glowing eyes. They weren't red like the female vampire's I'd seen. They were a very pale blue rimmed with white. "Her name is Vanessa." My stomach dropped but Vanessa didn't flinch.

"How do you know about that, Mr. Fenton?" He growled and launched himself forward until the chains restricted him. Malcolm stood just behind where the creature could reach. I had stepped completely into the hallway light now, a good deal back from the rest of them. Somehow the vampire looked through both Malcolm and Ethan to find me.

"Fear already? You'll not survive long in this cruel old world." Vanessa took a step towards me.

"Tell me of your master," Malcolm ordered. The vampire growled again and the chains rattled. Malcolm kicked him and he hunched over. "Where is your master?" The vampire had blood on his lips now.

"Right behind you." I turned around but there was nothing there but the dark. "Don't you feel him in the dark?" I hung to the light around me. " On the back of your neck. Now one finger reaching out. Do you not feel it? Ava does. She's always felt it. Don't worry, they soon will. And then all light will end and the world will live in darkness." I realized I wasn't afraid of the vampire. I pitied him. He didn't ask to be like this. He'd been a boy once, a boy with a family, people who loved him. His head turned to Vanessa.

"The hidden ones will emerge and rule. Amunut. Amun-Ra." I didn't know much about Egyptian culture, but I knew the second name was the devil. And the first was the name Madame Kali had used at the seance when she looked at Vanessa.

"Do you know the name Mina?" I walked out of my small pool of light to address him. Vanessa put her hand on my arm before I could pass her. She wanted me to stay behind Ethan.

"I know the name Vanessa. Naughty girl. Mother will punish you, you cocksucking whore." Malcolm grabbed a whip.

"Where is your master? "Ethan held out his hand.

"Hold on."

"Will you beat me, Mother? Have I been naughty? I only wanna eat like all poor creatures." It was like Vanessa was the only one that existed in the room. "I'm so hungry!" Malcolm brought the whip down and I winced as the creature cried out.

"Where is your master?"

"Everywhere!" He whipped again and I turned away.

"Where is your master?!"

"I'm so hungry!" I watched Sembene lead Victor Frankenstein down the basement stair as the creature cried out in pain again. It was crying now like the scared little boy it looked like. Ethan caught the whip before Malcolm could bring it down again.

"Oh, I'm late to the party," the doctor muttered.

"He's the first real connection we have to Mina. It's an invaluable opportunity we cannot afford to waste." Malcolm was pitching his case against Ethan while Frankenstein paced and Vanessa stared into space.

"Even if it means beating him to death?" Ethan asked.

"Suddenly sentimental about bloodletting, Mr. Chandler?"

"Maybe I don't take to torturing children." Neither of them was winning this argument.

"Killing redskins more your line?" Frankenstein asked.

"Stop pacing you're making everybody dizzy," I informed him.

"You know nothing about it," Ethan snapped.

"Whole Indian nations pacified into nonexistence, what don't I know?" Just when I was starting to like him he had to go and pretend he was the smartest person in the room.

"How did you know I was in the Indian wars?"

"I didn't."

"Gentlemen, the matter at hand," Malcolm said, holding up his hands like he was some sort of peacekeeper. "Doctor?"

"As a subject, he's promising. If you seek a cure, you'll need a subject for experimentation."

"A cure for what?" Vanessa asked before I could open my mouth.

"I"ll have to make a proper examination, but I think the disorders not mental. The psychological symptoms are too marked."  
>"And it's not a disorder," I added. He ignored me.<p>

"I would began treatment as if where say, Dengue fever or one of the other rare blood disorders. Perhaps transfusion."

"To what end?"

"Removing the toxins from his system and seeing if there are any improvements. There may be a way to treat your daughter if she is similarly afflicted." Malcolm wanted a cure for Mina. He thought that if she was like that thing downstairs, he'd be able to save her. That was insane, there was no cure because it wasn't a disease! They'd been transformed into other creatures, not fallen ill with a fever.

"The whole thing is steeped in blood, so why not start there?"

"Why not?" Ethan exclaimed. "You've got a kid chained up in your basement and you're talking about experimenting on him like he's some kind of rat while you're not talking about torturing him."

"Then leave this house," Vanessa said. I turned sharply to her. I thought she'd be on my side with this. The look on Ethan's face told me he did too. "We here have been brutalized with loss. It has made us brutal in return. There is no going back from this moment."

"This is insane," I said, looking at Malcolm. "If Mina's been infected, you can't cure her, this isn't a disease! I was there, I saw what those creatures did and you can't torture confessions or do experiments on that thing and expect to be any less in the dark."

"If we're to proceed, we proceed as one," Malcolm told me roughly. Without hesitation and with fealty to each other alone." I turned away from him stubbornly. "This we seek demands nothing less. It's not for the weak or the kind. No one in this room is kind. That's why you're here. Now look into each other's eyes and pledge to go as far as your soul will allow. Swear it now." He looked at Vanessa, but she didn't need to do more than look at him to tell him she swore. Sembene and Frankenstein gave definitive nods. When his eyes turned to me I nodded too, feeling my eyes fill up with tears. I didn't want to be this person. I didn't want to have to make these choices. Ethan was silent.

"Give your answer, Mr. Chandler. Or leave this company and it's mystery's behind." Ethan looked at me.

"I'm with you." I smiled back at him, feeling the tears fade.

"Since we're compacted, I have a question," Vanessa said, ending the silence and turning to Malcolm. "Tonight in the zoo, Mina was not there. Did you know?"

"I feared."

"Why?" He didn't answer. "Why?" She hardly ever rose her voice like that. Whatever had passed between them, I didn't understand it.

"I think it's possible the creature we seek doesn't want her. There's a reason why Ava's been seeing these visions, why you are affected the way you are." He looked at me. "It wants you." I couldn't speak, I just stared at him. He'd just said what I'd always felt inside me. It went to Vanessa because for some reason, it couldn't get to me. I had a feeling she had a part to play as well, but I had a bigger one.

"For what purpose?" Vanessa demanded.

"I don't know."

"Tell me. Tell me."

"I don't know." They stared at each other for a few agonizing moments.

"You used my sister as bait."

"Yes." When I'd looked at him in the zoo, my senses were on alert because I'd felt something. Like he was the danger. Like he was the hunter and I was the prey. He'd have thrown me in that cage with the vampire in seconds if it meant he could see his daughter again. But I was his daughter too. Had he forgotten that, or did he just not care? I pushed my chair back and left the room without looking at any of them. I heard Ethan get up and follow me. I went to the library, leaving the door open behind me and bracing myself against the lit fireplace because that was where the most light was. Ethan hesitated in the doorway. After a long time he let out a breath.

"I want to tell you something." I stared at him. "But only if you sit." I sat on the arm of the couch and he sat beside me. "I took a room at the Mariner's Inn on the other side of the river." I let out a shaky laugh. The Mariner's Inn was known to be a hub for prostitutes and drugs.

"Why there of all places?"

"You want to offer me something to drink?" I smiled and went to the cupboard, pulling out a bottle of scotch and a glass. He drank the first one almost in one gulp.

"What's her name?" He smiled.

"Brona. It means sadness in Gaelic."

"Does she live up to the name?" He thought about it.

"Can't tell. She has consumption."

"I'm sorry." We were silent for a moment. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"The reason I'm doing this is because she doesn't have money for medicine." I looked at he floor.

"Oh, you must really like her-" His hand was suddenly on top of mine.

"But that's not the only reason. From the first moment I saw you in that pub, I knew you were something special. Not because I pity you, I don't think you want that. But because of your spirit. You've seen horrors, I can tell. You've never been allowed to be a child and now your childhood is gone and you have nothing to say for it. But I don't want to see you lose that spark in your eyes. I don't want to see what I saw tonight again, do you understand?" I nodded and he stood. "If you need me, you know where I'll be."

"Ethan," I said as he was halfway out the door. "Thank you."

"Take care of yourself, kid. I'll see you in the morning."


	4. Demimonde

Doctor Frankenstein all but ran past me to get to the door after talking to the blood specialist. Sembene and I just stared after him. I opened the door to the parlor and watched the old man packing up his tools.

"Did you tell him his cat died?" I asked. The old man smiled lightly.

"The young are always so eager. Good day, ma'am." He tipped his hat and I watched Sembene show him out. Vanessa had gone out for a walk earlier and she'd been gone a long time, so I was pacing around the staircase waiting for her. I worried too much. But then again, she worried too much about me too. I looked out the window and saw Frankenstein talking to a man across the street. Was that why he ran out? I watched him grab the man and drag him out of my eyesight. Well, I had nothing else to do.

"Sembene, I'l m going for a walk."

"Come back if it starts to rain, miss."

"You know I will." I never did and he hated when I dripped puddles on his freshly cleaned carpets. I hid behind the wall of a building within earshot of Frankenstein and his friend.

"Do what you promised!" the man was saying.

"I'm trying," the doctor responded urgently. "It's not an easy thing that you ask of me. I will need supplies."

"Then find them." There was something different about the man. From what I could see of him, his face was much too pale and his eyes were too large. Almost inhuman.

"I mean a physical subject.

"Who knows better than I would what you mean."

"It will take time."

"Do not temporize, demon." He raised his voice and I stepped a little closer. Frankenstein went to leave but the man caught his arm. "My bride must be… must be beautiful."

"To match her mate?" His voice was rich with sarcasm. The man slammed him against he side of a building and my hand found the rock lying on a barrel next to me.

"What a simple thing it is to snap your neck. You are so fragile, you mortals." The doctor locked eyes with me and they wided. "Such things of skin and air. Such things of the past." I saw him hold out his palm, fingers spread. A silent message for me to stay where I was. "The future belongs to the strong. To the immortal race. To me and my kind." He made this creature. It wasn't the same one from my vision, but there were too many things lining up. He brought this man back to life and it had gone wrong. "Look upon your master." The man walked off. I waited a few seconds before dropping the rock.

"Your friend seems nice."

"You shouldn't have followed me." He started walking away, in the opposite direction of the creature. I caught up to him.

"You think I'm just going to walk away after that?" I was teasing, but he didn't' seem to be in the mood for jokes.

"There's nothing more to say, Ava. Go home."

"What was that thing?"

"A mistake." I was practically running to keep up with him now.

"So you didn't mean to bring that one back to life?" He stopped mid stride and stare at me. "What went wrong with that one that didn't with the other?"

"How do you know these things?" He looked terrified, like me having this information could hurt him somehow.

"I see things," I said simply. "I saw you with the other man you brought back to life. I figured that meant this one was the same thing, but you did it wrong.

"You see things?" His voice was shaky. "What else have you seen?"

"Nothing else about you. But Malcolm is employing you to help us with the creature in our basement, not the one what just shoved you against a wall. So keep your problems away from my house." He stared at me blankly. "But if you do need help, just ask." He scoffed.

"Why would you want to help me? You don't even know me."I shrugged.

"I like helping people. And I'm pretty sure you're not done for the day so maybe we should turn around?" He stared at me for a few more seconds before following me back to the house. Vanessa wasn't back yet, but when Ethan showed up Malcolm suggested we get to work. Work was watching Victor attempt to take blood from the vampire without being bitten by it. It wasn't going so well.

"Keep your fucking needles to yourself! Get your scalpel, cut me open. Eat up, eat up!" It wasn't as dark down there during the day because light could pour in through the window. It made the vampire even less dangerous to me. And made me feel even more bad for it.

"For heaven's sake, can you sedate him?" Malcolm demanded. "His chatter is becoming wearisome." I shot up him a look and the vampire's eyes landed on me.

"Where's Vanessa? I want mother."

"Why?" I asked, getting closer than I probably should have. "Why do you want her?" I spoke to him like I was speaking to a child. Despite the fact that he would kill us all in seconds if those chains weren't there, he seemed to respond to emotion.

"Why does everyone want her?" His eyes were the only part of him that made me nervous. They were so inhuman.

"Gentlemen, if you will," the doctor ordered. Sembene and Ethan held the vampire back while it kicked and thrashed as Victor stuck the sedative in it's neck. I'd started calling him by his first name now in my head. Intresting.

"Fuck you butcher!" The vampire shouted as the sedative started to kick and he sank against the wall. "Butchers all. Especially you, toff wanker," he added in Malcolm's direction. He leaned his head against the wall and started crying. "This is sad. No, no I don't want to sleep." Why were we doing this to him? I didn't see him as a creature anymore, creatures couldn't feel. Anything that felt sadness, fear and pain deserved to be treated like a person.

"Why not?" Malcolm asked.

"Maybe because it's being forced upon him," I suggested angrily.

"So many monsters," the vampire breathed, closing his eyes.

"Jesus," Ethan muttered. "Remind me why we're doing this again?"

"We are seeking a cure," Malcolm told him roughly.

"We don't even know what he disease is." There wasn't one. But there was no point in me saying it again because they didn't listen to me.

"We think the condition is based in the blood, so we'll start with transfusion," Victor said, grabbing a tube. "Out with the old, in with the new." He looked at Ethan. "Roll up your sleeve."

"Why?' I was pretty sure I knew why and it was gross.

"We need a subject." Ethan scoffed.

"No."

'Roll up your sleeve, it won't hurt."

"You're sticking a needle in him, it's gonna hurt," I said helpfully.

"That's not a good idea," Ethan told him.

"Why not?"

"Trust me." Something to do with the wolf thing. I'd come to the conclusion Ethan wasn't totally human. I was more drawn to things that weren't and I was very drawn to him.

"I'll do it," Malcolm offered. He sat in a chair and Victor grabbed another tube.

"We'll start with a small amount and work in gradual stages. If there's an improvement, we'll continue."

"How will we be able to tell?" I asked.

"Well, he won't be able to eat everyone for a start." I smiled. "Honestly, this will hurt a little."

"Told you," I said in a sing song voice.

"Yes, thank you doctor," Victor praised sarcastically. When he was done taking Malcolm's blood, we gathered in the parlor. Ethan was pacing and Victor was reading a newspaper like nothing important was going on.

"How long do we have to wait?" Ethan asked.

"Sembene will alert us when he wakes up." Malcolm had put him on guard duty as usual.

"Are these our boy's do you think?" Victor flipped the newspaper so we could see it. I came away from my position by the window to look. It was an article about the brutal murders of a mother and her seven year old daughter.

"The creature's? No," Malcolm said quickly.

"Bodies dismembered, limbs flayed, sounds awfully familiar."

"There's no blood drain," I pointed out, sitting on the arm of couch closest to Ethan.

"Had there been more evidence of cannibalism, then perhaps," Malcolm went on. I deliberately brushed my arm against Ethan's. I saw the wolf again and the woman and the little girl. It was similar to the vision I saw before, but this time when I looked up, I saw the exact same black and white image on the front of the newspaper.

"-so he didn't consume the flesh-" Victor was saying but was cut off by Ethan grabbing the newspaper from his hands and throwing it into the unlit fireplace.

"Would you stop it? Holy Christ, you are both morbid fucks." I just watched him.

"My, my. That temper of yours," Victor scolded.

"Well, we're not all bloodless dandies."

"Is that I am?"

"I don't know what you are."

"You could not understand it, believe me."

"My, my. What arrogance."

"We've all got secrets," I said, breaking up the banter. "So unless you both want to start pouring your heart out to the rest of us, why not stop arguing with each other? Is there not enough tension in this house?" To my surprise, they both shut up. Malcolm broke the silence.

"Do you know much able the Nile?" he asked Ethan. "In my profession, it's the holy grail. The actual scientific value of discovering the source is negligible of course, but it's a sort of a fever. Who will claim the prize? Who will trace the mother of waters to it's origins? World renown awaits." He paced to his maps, no longer talking to us. I hated when he talked about Africa. It was the reason Peter was dead and he acted like he didn't care. He took no responsibility for what he'd done. What his obsessions, his fever, had done to my family.

"Would you like to come with me, Mr. Chandler?" We all stared at him. "I could use a man with a temper."

"Not enough danger for you here?"

"Don't go to Africa Ethan," I told him, then I shot a glare in Malcolm's direction. "People die there."

"Who dies where?" Vanessa was taking off her hat as she walked into the room. "Ooo. You all look so solemn." She kissed my head.

"Oh, we're planning a little holiday," Victor said.

"Taking a holiday, are we?" I noticed Malcolm's eyes hadn't left me yet. "That's jolly. Where?" She was in a good mood.

"You shall have to ask my more robust brother," Victor said, getting up. Was he jealous? Seriously? I would have been furious with him if he'd understood, but he had no idea. He was upset that he wasn't being favored. In Victor's mind, the world should revolve around him.

"I've asked Mr. Chandler to accompany me to Africa," Malcolm told Vanessa. She sighed.

"Oh. That." I smiled, suddenly feeling better.

"Why must you always denigrate my work?" he asked her.

"Because you're not really going to go!" She swiped her coat over my head playfully as she took it off. Victor took a swig of brandy. We were going to be all out of the stuff if he and Ethan continued on like this. "Leave the mad larks to the boys, sir Malcolm."

"Oh not me, just him," Victor said bitterly. "I'm bloodless."

"The essence of your appel, doctor," I said leaning back into him. "Where have you been all day Ness and why are you smiling so much?"

"I can't smile?" I gave her a look. "I went to look at something beautiful." I touched her hand as she passed me.

"Dorian Grey?!" She threw an apple at my head.

"What have I told you about that, Ava, it's cheating!" I laughed and took a bite of the fruit. Ethan and Victor were staring at us. I was going to get some questions for that later, but I could find a way around it. I was glad Vanessa was happy. Glad enough to forget that Malcolm was trying to steal Ethan away from me. Sembene appeared in the doorway.

"He is awake." The laughter was gone as we all ran to the basement door. Malcolm leaned over the still half asleep vampire.

"Can you hear me, Mr. Fenton?"

"Are you going to beat me?" He sounded like a scared little boy.

"No."

"Thank you. Did I deserve that?" No, no one deserves that. Maybe the treatment was actually working. He seemed different. "I'm so hungry," he groaned. I stepped forward fearlessly and rolled my half eaten apple to him. He picked it up and sniffed it.

"I need blood, you fucking devil whore!" I jumped back into Vanessa. "Give me rats and bats and lungs and guts and flesh! Give me what I need!" He started shrieking in agony before curling up in a ball and sobbing. I felt tears running down my own cheeks.

"It will be a process," Victor muttered.

"Get him something to eat," Ethan snapped. I followed him upstairs and Vanessa followed me.

"Not what you bargained for?" she asked as we walked him to the door. I wiped the tears of my face.

"Never is," Ethan answered her.

"I know it's disturbing, "Vanessa said, slipping her arm around me. "That terrible thing." But it wasn't a terrible thing. It wasn't his fault he was like that.

"I'm not disturbed by him, I'm disturbed by us," Ethan said to the floor. "Ava, you want to do something normal tonight?"

"Normal?" I asked.

"Something that doesn't involve being screamed at by a vampire. I'm taking Brona out on the town. Why don't you come with us?"

"Taking her on a date? You want me to come on your date?" He smiled.

"No, you'll like Brona. You're a lot a like."

"Sure."

"If that's alright with you of course Miss Ives that I'm stealing your sister for the evening?"

"Of course, go, have fun." I could see that she meant it and even though I didn't like the idea of leaving while she had to stay and deal with the creature in the basement, I did want to spend time with Ethan.

"I'll see you later then," I told her hesitantly, giving her plenty of room to change her mind.

"Stop worrying Ava, we'll be fine here. Take a coat, I'll see tonight."

The Mariner's inn was not full of the nicest people in London. In fact, they all looked either drunk or wishing they were. We had to walk through the pub to get up to the rooms and I gave Ethan a look at the scene in front of me.

"Hey, I know it's not Murry Mansion but it works for a guy like me." I laughed and he lead me up the stairs. He knocked on the door and an irish woman's voice told us to come in. "I brought you a visitor." There was a woman sitting by the mirror of the small room. SHe had red hair and didn't look like a typical consumption patient. I assumed she'd look more sick. She was actually very beautiful.

"Brona this is Ava, a friend of mine."

"Hello," she said in a thick irish accent giving Ethan a confused look. "Are you another one of his suitors?"

"God no!" I blurted out. "I mean... he's working for my father." I never referred to Malcolm as my father, but it seemed the easiest way to describe Ethan and I's relationship without all the vampires and blood and random dreams I'd had.

"I was only teasing ya!" she said with a grin. "Come in then, if you're coming with us you need to at least let me play with your hair." I couldn't say no to her. She was dying. But during the next twenty minutes of Brona putting various clips in my hair, I forgot about that. Ethan was right, I did like her. I didn't spend much time with people who didn't see otherworldly creatures on a daily basis.

"Are we going to go, because though this show is nice, I'd like to see the one I payed for." Brona kissed him on the cheek.

"She's ready." She had somehow managed to arrange my insane curls into an updo that looked halfway presentable.

"I think you might be magic," I told her.

"Yeah, alright, we're leaving," Ethan said pulling me up. The theater was on the same side of the river, so it wasn't that far a walk. It was however, packed with people. You had to wait in a queue just to walk. But the smile on Brona's face made me feel more comfortable, despite my hate of crowds.

"Oh Ethan, I've wanted to come here forever," she said as he bought the tickets. "Monstrous little horrors they enact," she told me.

"Say it like that and you can get me to do anything," Ethan told her.

"What?"

"Eaten,'" he said in a mock Irish accent. She hit him with her bag.

"Shut up." Then suddenly we were in the theater. It was bigger than I thought it would be. The ceiling alone made me want to stare for hours. I was use to large houses and expensive things, but this was different. It was made for people to stare at. Brona kissed Ethan and I looked at the floor. Love without wanting something in return wasn't something I was use to. Ethan gestured at our seats.

"No, you're sitting next to me," Brona ordered as I went to take the first one. "I'm not going to lean on him if I get scared, he'll laugh at me." Ethan laughed. "You see?" I sat on the outside so she was in the middle. Ethan took an orange from the woman handing them around and went to hand it to me, then yanked it back at the last second and handed it to Brona.

"Rude!" I told him grabbing a second orange from the tray and throwing it at him.

"Hey, no throwing fruit, this is why I can't take you to nice places!" He scolded as he rubbed his arm and Brona laughed. The lights dimmed to complete darkness and people gasped. I felt Ethan's hand reach over Brona to brush my shoulder. Seconds later a dozen gas lights on the front of the stage hissed on and people cheered. A man in a tophat and a suit wearing far too much white face make up came up from a trapdoor in the middle of the stage. He spread his arms wide.

"Travel us all to a sacred place!" He gave an introduction, dramatically waving his arms above his head the whole time. Brona had a huge grin on her face. People clapped as the introduction ended and the curtain opened. A woman dressed in white began to tell us how she was innocent in the ways of men. One of the men in the crowd shouted 'not for long!' which made me laugh far more than the rest of the play as it went on. The girl was courted by an older prince looking man who started shouting about tests of faith while the girl thought love came from the heart. Though it was dramatic and predictable , I found myself actually enjoying it. There was something about watching people in strange costumes jump around a stage that enticed an audience.

So the prince and the princess got caught in the woods and the prince was narrating a speech about how he was going to fight off whatever supernatural creature was stalking them. It was that moment I Realized that the prince was the creature. But it was another fifteen minutes of buildup before other members of the audience started noticing it as well. The princess was promising the prince that she didn't care what he was, she loved him. The prince started shouting that he couldn't hold back anymore, but the princess was too stupid to run away.

"For the beast is here!" There was a loud crash and smoke rose up around the prince and engulfed up. Brona jumped halfway out of her seat and grabbed my hand. The smoke cleared and wolf was standing in the prince's place. The audience gasped and the princess screamed. Brona leaned up against Ethan who was laughing as the wolf went in for the attack. Blood started flying out of the princess's dress. All the women in the audience covered their eyes. The wolf howled and everyone clapped.

"That's definitely the best part," I told Ethan. "She was getting annoying."

"You're ghoulish!" Brona accused, giving me a playful shove. An announcer said that the next act would start in fifteen minutes, so everyone started getting out of their seats and heading towards the lobby. "Why do they need so much blood?" Brona was questioning as we found a free spot of floor.

"To keep your attention," Ethan told her. "And to make all the woman gasp."

"I didn't gasp," I reminded him.

"Yes, you're a special case."

"Hey!"

"Mr. Chandler," a familiar voice said from behind me.

"Miss Ives, what a pleasure."

"Are you following me?" I demanded.

"Am I not allowed to go out?" she teased. Ethan gestured to Brona.

"This is miss Brona Croft. Brona, miss Vanessa Ives, Ava's sister."

"How do you do, miss Croft?"

"Ma'am."

"It's so lovely to meet you at last." Brona gave her a strange look, but Vanessa had already moved on. It wasn't a coincidence she was here, how could it be? Did she not rust me to be on my own? I wasn't ten years old anymore. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you here. Being a man of the theater yourself."

"Don't worry, he's a much better actor than that prince," I told Brona. She was shuffling her feet awkwardly like Vanessa's presence intimidated her.

"Miss Ives." Dorian Grey. That's why she was here. This man was embedding himself more and more into her life and I didn't know how I felt about it. Vanessa didn't have the best luck with love.

"I knew you'd find me."

"Or did you find me? Hello Ava."

"Hello." He turned to Ethan. Brona was looking even more nervous.

"Hello, I'm Dorian Grey."

"Ethan Chandler. This is miss Brona Croft."

"Hello," she said quickly, looking at the floor.

"Oh, we've met I believe."

"I meet so many people, don't I?" she said offhand.

"How do you like the show?" Vanessa asked him. She seemed totally focused on him, the rest of us had faded to the background. And I want to know how Dorian knew Brona. It obviously wasn't a good meeting.

"It's thrilling."

"If you like illusion."

"And declamation," Ethan added with a grin.

"You're a fine one to talk about declamation, Mr. Chandler. When we met you were tearing a passion yourself." I sent a smile in Brona's direction, but she didn't see me.

"Are you an actor?" Dorian asked.

"I was a sharpshooter in a wild west show."

"That hardly does you justice. Henry Ivan himself could not reach your hights of hysterical florence," I giggled and Ethan laughed.

"Excuse me, I need some air," Brona said, pushing her way past us. Shit. Ethan went after her.

"Nice job," I told Dorian cheekily. "Did you hire her, is that why she ran out?"

"Ava!" Vanessa snapped. Dorian just smiled.

"It's alright," he told her like I was just a silly child who didn't know anything. "You have a good head on your shoulders. Don't lose that." The lights flickered, singling the next act was about to began. "I'll go see what's keeping them." He left Vanessa and I alone. As he passed, he brushed my arm. But there was nothing. No images, no flashes.

"Why do you have to do that?" she asked.

"Do what?"I was staring after Dorian in confusion

"Push people away from me. Not everyone is dangerous, Ava."

"He is."

"How could you possible know that?"

"You know how. I just do. But I can't read him." She gave me a confused look. "His arm touched mine when he walked past I didn't see anything."

"And is that a bad thing?"

"Ness, I always see things! It's like he doesn't have a past." She sighed. People were going back into the theater, there were only few other groups still in the lobby besides us.

"Can you just give me this one thing, Ava? Forget about all of the things that you-that we can do. Like we're Ethan and Brona, nothing else. Can you do that for me?" I had never seen her act this way about a man. It wasn't who Vanessa was, not with our past.

"You really like him, don't you?" She nodded. "Alright. I can try to like him too." She smiled and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you."

"I'm going to see if I can catch up to Brona."

"Dorian went after them."

"Yes, but I'm sure Brona's already halfway back to the inn. I'll see you at home."

"You be careful on the streets by yourself!" she shouted after me.

"I"ll stay under the lampposts!" She knew I would. I didn't see Dorian or Ethan outside, so I headed back to the inn. It was only a few blocks and unlike most woman, I knew how to be on my own. But Brona wasn't in the room when I got back. That meant a much longer walk to get home. I considered going back to the theater, but I wanted to stay away from Vanessa and Dorian. I didn't want to ruin it for her. I tried to stay near other people as I walked. I stayed under the lampposts the most I could and when there weren't any, I walked in light from the windows of the houses. It took me a while to get back, but I didn't mind the walk. It gave me time to think. Dorian Grey couldn't be human. All my life I'd been able to touch people and see the the deepest secrets of their past. I hadn't always done it on purpose, it wasn't something I could turn off. With people I knew well, I could shift through their memories to find the one I wanted like I'd done with Vanessa earlier. Dorian Grey couldn't be human. Vanessa and I were always drawn to the people that weren't. I'd come to the conclusion Ethan wasn't. London was full of supernatural beings, a hub of activity. Maybe it was just because so many people were in one place.

I found myself thinking about Victor as I walked. I wasn't in love with him. I'd told myself that I'd never fall in love. That love like that, love like the princess felt for the prince, was just a fantasy. A play. Love was hard and unpredictable and it wasn't something that I wanted. All I'd never seen love do was destroy. So if I didn't love him, than what was it? Maybe it was because he reminded me of Peter. Peter hadn't been snobby or overconfident like Victor acted, but they were alike. They had the same appreciation for science, for wanting to know how things worked. They were both men that would never be considered strong. They were professors. They were good for the brains, not their brawn. Peter had been kinder than I saw Victor to be and a good deal more innocent, but when I looked at him, I saw my brother. But obviously didn't love my brother in that way, so why was I so drawn to Victor? I hadn't figured it out by the time I reached the steps of the house. Sembene had the night off, so I let myself in. It was eerily quiet.

"Hello?" I called, walking into the parlor. Malcolm never left his study this earlier and I assumed he and Victor would still be working. "Hello?" I looked into the study. The feeling of dread was building as I glanced towards the basement door. Nothing seemed wrong, but I could feel that something was. I started walking towards Malcolm's room when I heard footsteps. I whipped around my heart racing. It was only Malcom

"What happened?"

"It was here."

"What was?"

"Come downstairs." I followed him and he sunk onto the couch.

"Was it the creature?" I asked. "It came here?" He nodded.

"And the boy's dead."

"It came after him?" He was looking at the picture of Peter and Mina on the table.

"The creature was in Vanessa's room. It came after her."

"No." I sat on the opposite side of the couch from him.

"Like it was all a ploy. Allowing us to capture him, bringing him here. We practically invented it in, didn't we?"

"But it was Mina who lead me to him," I said softly, looking at the floor. I was glad Vanessa was still gone. I was trying not to think about what would have happened if she hadn't gone out looking for Dorain. If it had taken her like it took Mina...

"Suggesting what, Ava?" He was instantly device.

"That..." I didn't want to say it, especially not in front of him. He was only going to get angry, tell me I was wrong and make it worse. But I felt like I had to say it. Vanessa always said you had to name a thing to make it real. And this was very real. "That Mina is manipulating me. That she may be beyond our help."

"That she may be using you to hurt Vanessa. Can you blame her?" He'd spun it completely around. I wasn't talking about Vanessa and Mina, I was talking about Mina and me. Mina would never use me to get back at Vanessa. That wasn't the sister I'd Known. In the three years I'd spent with her after it all happened, she never once told me she hated Vanessa. He refused to see the truth for what it was. My Mina would not have done what she did, not for any reason.

"Vanessa isn't the only one in this house she has a reason to hate," I reminded him sharply. "Ness betrayed Mina once, you ignored her your entire life. So have the courage to see your own sin before you sight other's so easily." I wanted my words to hurt them, but I felt they never did. Like I was nothing, my words meant nothing.

"There are times I wish Mina had been born with your cruel spirit. You're the daughter I deserve." But I hadn't expected him to say that. He never acknowledged I was his daughter in any way. And though he'd only voiced what I knew he thought of me in his head, it still felt like I was getting stabbed in the chest. He stood up.

"So we'll carry on with this fight. We can lose every battle except the last."

"Malcolm," I called after him as he went to leave the room. "Don't tell Vanessa that thing was in her room. Let me do it." He looked back at me.

"I was planning to."


	5. Closer Than Sisters

My dreams of the past came in waves. Sometimes I wouldn't have one for a month, other times I'd have them everyday for weeks. They didn't let me forget what I desperately wanted to. Not that all of my childhood was bad, because it wasn't. The first ten years of my life were spent running along beaches tailing after my older siblings. My biggest problem then was being left out because I was so much younger than everyone around me.

I was born into not one, but two families. My mother was Claire Ives. She was married to Henry Ives and they had an eleven year old daughter, Vanessa. And throughout my childhood, I never questioned the fact that Henry was my father. He was after all married to my mother and as a child, I assumed that once a woman was married, all of her children would be her husbands. Why wouldn't it be any other way? I was naive, I didn't know the darkness of the world or it's secrets. Looking back, I wouldn't have had it another way. I was allowed to be a child, allowed to remain innocent and not have to carry the burden that my older sister did. What must she have felt every time she heard me call Henry daddy? Only she and my mother knew the truth. And of course, the man who was my real father.

The Murray's were our neighbors, but to me they were as much family as the people who I lived with. Malcolm traveled far more often after my birth. I now know it was to hide his guilt. To act like I simply didn't exist. His absence never bothered me as a child. I didn't know it any other way. And it was his children that made up the second half of my family. Peter and Mina were as much by siblings as Vanessa was. Of course, this was before I knew that we shared a father. But if I had known, it wouldn't have made a difference. I grew up in their house, tailing after the three of them like a cat following string.

Peter was thirteen years older than I, so he was constantly trying to be my caregiver. But I was too rebellious of a child to listen to him. I ran ramped through our houses, climbing on everything I possibly could and receiving countless injuries. Most of the time it was to impress my sisters. I was always closer to Mina than I was to Vanessa. Maybe it was because Vanessa harbored a secret every time she looked at me, while Mina and I's relationship remained pure. She was also far more nurturing. She didn't mind playing games with me or answering my thousands of questions. Vanessa would quickly get bored and call me a chatterbox and she would have much rather spent her time with Mina than playing with her baby sister.

But my childhood was a happy one. I had three people who would protect me with their lives. It was really Peter, Mina and Vanessa that raised me. My mother ignored me. She said she was too busy, she constantly told me to play by myself. So I left her alone. Now I know that it wasn't because she was busy. I was her mistake. I was her secret and her burden that had to be kept from her husband. I was never partially close with Henry either. I didn't feel a connection to him. Quite frankly, I didn't need him when I had Peter. It was shortly after my tenth birthday that things began to change in my seemingly perfect life. Mina met a man. I wasn't surprised that Mina had fallen in love, I thought she was probably the most beautiful woman in the world and every man should love her. She was going to marry him and move to India. That part I didn't like. Wasn't India so very far away?

But everyone else in the house was happy for her, so I pretend I was too. Happy about everything but her leaving. There was so much happening around me, even Malcolm came back for the wedding. With all of the strange people, the food, the party, I didn't notice that Vanessa was different. Maybe she wasn't, maybe she kept it all inside. But there was one thing I witnessed. It was right before Mina's engagement party I ran to Vanessa's room to show her my dress and found her crying on her floor. I didn't go to her, I stood in the doorway and watched her. I wasn't use to seeing sadness, my family never had troubles that I was a witness to. There was a shadow in the mirror behind her. I looked because I wanted to. I wasn't scared.

Most little girls would be scared of a dark shadow in a mirror that wasn't there when you turned around. But I was only curious. I was too innocent to understand darkness, to believe that anything could truly hurt me. I'd never been hurt. I'd never seen fear, or dread, never felt afraid of the dark. And maybe that was why it was drawn to me. Because in me it saw a girl who it could befriend. A naive, overly curious girl desperate for attention. A girl who it could seduce Something whispered, I listened. And in that moment a connection was made between me and the darkness.

That night was the last night I would spend with Mina. The next morning she was getting married, and then she was leaving with her new husband to have her own family. She'd be a woman and I'd remain a girl. I felt Vanessa get out of the bed the three of us were sharing. I sat up and watched her leave. Mina stirred beside me.

"Where's Vanessa?" she asked sleepily. Something in my head told me to follow her. A whisper, a ploy. Go and see. Don't you want to know what she's doing down there without you? Don't you want to know her secrets? I walked to the bottom of the stairs, Mina following.

"Ava, where are you going? Come back to bed, it's freezing down here." It was almost like I was in a trance. My legs knew where to take me. I heard strange noises coming from the cellarium. Banging on wood, odd crying sounds. When I rounded the corner, I saw Mina's finance ontop of Vanessa. At ten years old, I hadn't known what they were doing. I only saw the look on Mina's face and the look on Vanessa's when she saw us standing there.

My family died that night. Instead of marrying the man that Mina had once told me was her prince charming, Malcolm packed his bags and loaded him into a carriage to take him away. I never saw him again. I didn't understand what was going on around me. Everyone was sad. Everyone was crying and confused. The Murrays had seemingly locked themselves into their house without me. There had never been a time when I felt separated from their family. My mother pleaded with Vanessa as she ran out of our house towards there's. I was running after them without any shoes on, the frozen ground hard under my feet.

"Vanessa! Vanessa, come back!" My mother yelled. "This is obscene, you mustn't!"

"How can I not?" My mother succeeded in pinning Vanessa to the wall that lead to the path to the Murray's house.

"Have you no shame?! Get upstairs this instant."

"How dare you speak to me of shame? Get upstairs yourself and make amends to my father for the girl behind you!" There was such anger in her voice. And it seemed to be my fault. What I had done? My mother let Vanessa go and I followed her. Malcolm was waiting at the gate. I remember feeling scared, like he was going to do something to us. I hid behind my sister who didn't seem to notice I was there.

"I have to see her." From what my ten year old brain understood, whatever Vanessa and Mina's prince charming had been doing in the cellarium had caused this. Malcolm was mad at the man who was suppose to be Mina's husband, so he sent him away. And now Mina was mad at Vanessa. And probably me too for finding them. This was all my fault. I should have stayed in bed, then Mina wouldn't have known and Vanessa wouldn't have got in trouble.

"And do what?" Malcolm asked.

"Make this right." There were tears running down her cheeks. But it would be alright. She'd say she was sorry and everything would go back to normal. Maybe Mina would even stay. Malcolm came over to the gate. The look on his face told me an apology wouldn't be enough this time.

"I always thought my traveling would destroy my family, being away so long. My thoughtlessness. I never imagined it would be a cruel little girl." He slammed the gate shut. I watched him walk away and things suddenly became very clear. I wasn't going to set foot in that house ever again. I wasn't going to see Mina and Peter. I wasn't invited anymore. Vanessa had ruined it all. I ran back towards the house without her with a rage that I had never had reason to feel before. How could she do this to us?! It wasn't fair!

"Ava, wait!" She caught up to me, trying to keep me from running away from her again. "Don't be angry with me, please!"

"Let me go! I hate you, I hate you!" She released me and I ran up the steps of our house without looking at my bewildered mother standing in the doorway. I collapsed onto my bed and cried. That was what little girls did when they were sad and scared. A shadow moved in my mirror and I heard a voice in my head. It didn't scare me, though it was clearly male and had no source.

"_Poor little girl, I'm sorry she did that to you. She deserves to be punished, don't you think?" _I nodded, wiping my tears away. I didn't feel alone with the voice with me. It was like having a friend to comfort me. "_We should get revenge. I can make her sorry. Do you want me too?"_

"Yes." I hadn't known what I was agreeing to. I wanted her to feel bad, to say she was sorry, to tell me she was sorry. I didn't realize that this voice was not my friend, that it as oud do terrible things that I couldn't even imagine to my sister for year to come because of the one three letter word I said out loud alone in my bedroom. The word that gave it permission to destroy what was left of my family.

She had her first, what the doctors called, seizure that night. For the next seven months, I watched the sister I had left be consumed by an illness. She would have seizures, from would come out of her mouth. She'd scream and writhe on her bed while nurses and doctors my parents were paying to stay with us held her down. No one knew what caused the illness or how to end it. But I did. I begged the voice to make her better again. This wasn't what I'd wanted. But it didn't listen. It didn't even answer. It was months of silence and guilt. There were times when I could talk to her, when she understood where she was. It was during one of those times that I heard the voice gain. My mother was sitting in a chair by her bed talking. She did that a lot. She talked and talked and Vanessa stared at the wall.

"They don't think it's epilepsy anymore. Did I tell you that?" She had, a week ago. "Doctor Kingston doesn't know what to think. Ridiculous little man." I stroked my dolls hair. I didn't really play with dolls anymore, but I still had this one because Mina had given her to me. I missed Mina and Peter terribly but my mother wouldn't let me see them. It made me hate her. That's what I'd learned the most of in those months. How to hate. Hate for my mother, for the doctors who didn't make anything better. Hate for myself.

"They think..." my mother's voice wavered. "They fear that perhaps it's your brain. Something inside you." Vanessa didn't' stir. Shew as swimming in the nightgown that use to fit her. There was a cut on her lip from her last fit and her face was pale as a ghosts. My mother had sighed and stood up, wiping her tears so we wouldn't see them.

"Let's see, what else? Mina's gone. She didn't want to stay here." I wasn't surprised by that. But selfishly, I wished she was here with me. My mother glanced down at me because Vanessa wasn't responding. She never did to anyone but me. "Or should we not speak of Mina? I don't know." She started to cry again. She cried a lot. "I don't know. We don't talk to the Murry's, or they to us. I tried going over there but I was not welcome. Sir Malcolm-" she swallowed her sob. She smoothed my hair, but I jerked away from her touch and crawled onto Vanessa's bed. I wasn't angry with her anymore. I blamed it all on myself as children do.

"They don't know what's wrong with you, darling." My mother knelt beside the bed. "The seizures, the seizures are so terrible. We shall be consulting a specialist in London. You always liked London. But perhaps the change. We'll book rooms by the Strax." Nothing she said made me hate her any less. I wished I could talk to her, tell her what was wrong. But she'd only call me a child and send me away. That's what she'd always done to me, sent me away. Ignored me. There were times I felt my mother hated me.

"There's a clinic there that are well known for treating woman's disorders." I didn't understand those words. Clinic. Disorders. The world is such a scary place for children because they're ignorant of it. Everything is confusing. They're forced to rely on their parents to tell them these things and when they don't, they're simply frightened.

"An asylum," Vanessa said like she'd read my confusion. That word I knew. My mother looked surprised. Vanessa only ever talked to me. "I am not mad, Mother. I am not unhappy. You should let me die." My mother started sobbing. I didn't feel anything when she cried. I felt no connection to that woman, to either of my parents. It was that night when I heard the voice again. I was sitting on my bed looking out the window at the sea where Vanessa, Mina, Peter and I use to chase each other threw the waves.

"_I want to be friends."_

"I don't want to be your friend," I'd said bitterly. "I want you to leave us alone."

"_Now, that's not very nice. If you're my friend, I'll make her better you know. If you're my friend, then she won't have to be." _

"Why do you want a friend so bad? Are you lonely?" I'd heard cold laughter, but no more words. "Alright. I'll be your friend." That was the second time it tricked me. It was sympathy it used that time. I had no concept of monsters. Everything had feelings in my word. Everything could be lonely and sad and deserved a friend. And so, the monster had become my friend. It was another three months before my mother took us to London. And my new friend would play games with me. It's favorite was to make Vanessa talk for it. I hadn't understood what possession was, that she didn't want it to be inside her. To me, it was fun. It felt like having my sister back. She wasn't screaming in pain or having seizures when it talked to me through her. And it could do things for me. Make objects move, bring my presents, torment the countless nurses coming in and out of my house. It did anything I asked it to.

It was shortly after my eleventh birthday, nearly a year after all of it had began that we packed up our belongs and boarded a train. Unlike the rest of my family, I'd never been to London. I remember being cold as I held my father's arms through the crowded streets. Everything was so big and different. My mother hadn't told me that we were going to this place to leave Vanessa behind. We went into a big building, all the building were big, and were lead into an office. The doctor told us to sit down. He started talking about the asylum he owned and the things he did to help people. My parents were very quiet.

"Vanessa?" The doctor asked. "Do you understand what I've said?" She was staring at his desk blankly. "I think it would be best Mrs. Ives, if you and your daughter stepped outside.

"No," I protested.

"I'll stay," my mother agreed with a quick glance at me. My father said nothing. He never said anything. Since Vanessa's 'illness' he was just quiet. It made me angry at him too because he was suppose to take care of us. The doctor sat down behind his desk.

"I must speak frankly to your husband."

"I'd like to stay." The doctor gave up. If there was one thing that made my mother and I alike it was our stubbornness.

"This form of catatonia is not unknown to me. The unusual physical exertions are manifestations of-"

"They were not exertions," my mother told him. "She was being tormented."

"I have seen epileptic seizures that have broken bones, Mrs. Ives. None of this impossible, just rare." He continued to speak about treatments using words I didn't understand. I put my hands over Vanessa's and felt my friend squeeze back. I wasn't alone. He was here.

"-I've seen it work Mr. Ives, you can have no doubt."

'And what if it doesn't work?" My mother asked.

"If we see no improvement, there are surgical options open to us."

"Yes." All eyes turned to Vanessa. "Let's do that."

"Mr. and Mrs. Ives, please take the child and leave the room. Immediately"

"No!" I repeated.

"Ava," my mother placed her hand on my shoulder and I moved away from her. "Ava, we need to leave the room now."

"No, I won't! You can't make me." My mother sighed and looked at the doctor.

"Can't she stay? It's impossible to separate her from her sister, she does the same thing at home-"

"Mrs. Ives, I must insist." I planted my feet on the ground stubbornly.

"I won't talk if she doesn't stay." Vanessa's eyes hadn't moved, but the doctor quickly changed his mind. He showed my parents out and I was allowed to remain in my seat.

"It is very good to hear your voice, Vanessa." He sat behind the desk again. "I'm doctor Chirstopher Baning and I hope to help you. Your parents have-"

"I want to be out there." She got up and went to the window.

"You will be. We have a lovely garden-"

"I prefer the ocean. Have you seen someone who's drowned? I have. Not a dog or a cat, not enough soul in a dog or a cat, I mean a man. A hundred men. A slave ship pulled right down with the men still chained. Souls in torment who now find themselves in greater torment. Have you seen that doctor Christopher Matthew Baning?" He hadn't told her his middle name. My friend told me stories like that all the time. They didn't care me. I wasn't like other little girls who would hide under the covers at those types of bedtime stories, he had said. I was special. I saw the doctor press a button on his desk.

"Vanessa, it's very important to me that you sit down now," he said. I didn't like this man. He wanted to do bad things to my sister.

"Who's Vanessa?" I asked. In the moment that he'd turned to look at me, she was on him. If the doctor was dead, he wouldn't hurt her and my friend and I could keep playing our games. But nurses came into the room and took her away. I screamed and tried to get to her, but my mother held me back. She told me over and over as I struggled that they had to send Vanessa away for her to get well.

"Ness! Ness! Ness!" I kicked and bit and screamed until I was too tired to stand.

My parents didn't' take me home with them. They sent me to a school in America. I was all alone without a single person in the world. The voice was gone, it had left me too. After a month at sea, I arrived at Westrick school for girls in New York. They all spoke funny and I was told what do and when to do it Every moment of my day was planned.I was use to being able to do what I wanted and I hated rules. The other girls bullied me because of my accent, so I forced myself to talk like they did to avoid their ridicule. I didn't make friends easily, I didn't want them. I wanted my family back. I came to realize as I got older and saw the cruelty in the world that my friend, if he'd really existed and not been simply a voice in my head created by a lonely girl, was not good, but evil. I vowed to never speak to him again. Despite my helplessness, after time I did start to fit into my school. I made friends, I learned, life went on. And for three years, life was quiet again. Until one day a familiar face appeared at my door.

I hadn't seen Peter Murray in four years. He hadn't changed, beside the beard, he was still skinny and I'd definitely had. I was fourteen by that time and becoming a woman. My hair was longer, I was taller, my face was thinner. I spoke with a flawless American accent without realizing I was doing it. After I'd finally let him go, Peter had told me he'd come to take me home. That my mother missed me and wanted to see me. She'd never visited me. She'd sent me letters, told me that Vanessa had returned home about six months ago. I never sent her a letter back. So I'd packed my bags and Peter and I had made the voyage back to England. He was sick the whole time, he'd come to get me by sea only days before. It was too much for his body to handle. But I was so glad to be with him again, it didn't matter. I asked him about Mina, but he said he hadn't heard from her. He was going to be leaving with his father to go to Africa soon after we got back. It was what he'd always dreamed of doing.

My house looked foreign to me when we arrived. Everything was as I remembered it, but I was not the girl who had left it. The school had made me grow up quickly, banish my memories of safety, home and family. I focused on getting to see Vanessa again. That was what was important. I'd laid awake for so many nights wishing I was with her. Having nightmares about the horrible things that might be happening to her. My mother greeted us at the door. She pulled me into her arms.

"My girl. My baby girl. Look how you've grown." I didn't look at her. I headed right for the stairs. Vanessa's room was dimly lit, I couldn't' see in. My mother and Peter had followed me.

"You mustn't be to shocked," my mother warned. "She's much changed."  
>"I don't care." I stepped into the room. It looked like a child sleeping in the bed. Her breathing was raspy, like each breath caused effort. Her hair was cropped short and her eyes were open, staring blankly at the ceiling.<p>

"Ness," I whispered. I sat on the side of her bed like I use to. But there was no voice this time. That was a childhood fantasy that I'd banished long ago. Real life had taken over. "Ness, I'm here. I've come home." Peter sat beside me and put his hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

"Will she die?" he asked my mother. She stood in the doorway.

"If there is a god."

"I she always like this?" I didn't ask the questions Peter was. I just stared at my sister's face.

"No. There are... episodes of activity." So the asylum hadn't done anything. Sickeningly, I was glad to hear that. Not because he had to stay there and suffer through it, but because the doctors didn't win. I ran my hand gently along her face. Her eyes shifted slightly.

"Does she know us?" Peter asked.

"We don't know. But talk to her, it's meant to help."

"Hello Ness, it's Ava," I said softly.

"Closer, I'm afraid." I leaned in closer.

"Ness. I'm here, I'm home. I came to see you." She looked at me, but I couldn't tell if she was really seeing me. Peter leaned forward too.

"Hello Van, it's Peter. I'm off to Africa. Can you believe it? I'm finally having that adventure we talked about. I'm very excited. Ava and I walked by the shore earlier where we use to swim." She raised her head and her cracked lips moved.

"You... should have... kissed me." I glanced at him. "Will you... kiss me now?" He kissed her softly, like a brother would their sister. I had been too young to see how she'd admired him. But Peter had never felt that way about her, or any woman I'd ever seen him with. She took a deep breath.

"You're going to die there. You're going to die there." her eyes glazed over again and moved back to the ceiling. I stared at him. He got u p and went downstairs. I followed.

"Peter, don't go."

"Oh Avs," he sighed. He hugged me and I clung onto him, refusing to let go. "I have to. It's all I've ever wanted."

"But what if you do die?"

"Then I'll die having achieved my dream." He kissed my head. "I love you." I knew as he walked out the door, that I'd never see him again. My mother tried to talk to me as I passed her on my way back to Vanessa's room, but I ignored her. I saw my father sitting in his study. He hadn't greeted me and I didn't go to see him. I sat back down on Vanessa's bed.

"I'm not going to leave again," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "I'm going to stay here and look after you. Mother doesn't understand, and Father, he doesn't even speak anymore." Her eyes focused on me.

"He's not... he's not your father. Malcolm... is." I wasn't sure if I'd heard her correctly. But her eyes didn't leave me and I could see she was coherent. "I saw them together. In the garden. You're... Malcolm's daughter."

"Ness... why didn't you tell me?" My tears were falling onto her nightgown that drooped loosely around her bones. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were too little. Too happy. You wouldn't have... understood." I cried into her shoulder.

"You have to get better, Ness. I'm so alone. I don't want them to send me back to that place, I hate it there. I want to stay with you. They can't keep us apart anymore, I just want to be with you." She'd fallen asleep after a while and I'd gotten up. I wanted to talk to my mother to find out if it was true. But it was Henry who I saw first. As usual, I was too curious for my own good. I wanted to see what he would do if I tested him, if I forced him to speak to me.

"Hello Father." He was sitting by the fire, staring into the flames. "I'm home, aren't you going to say hello?" He turned and looked at me. Then he turned back. "Is it because you now I'm not yours?" I asked tearfully. "Is that why you hate me?" He was on his feet in seconds and I knew I'd made a mistake.

"Who told you that?" he demanded. I didn't answer, I was afraid of him. "Who told you that?!" I shrunk away, pinning myself against the wall. There was a bottle next to where he'd been sitting. My Father had always drunk, but he'd never yelled at me. "Your mother told me a little while after she sent you away. She told you too, didn't she? Stupid wrench. I only stayed with her because of Vanessa. Ifs he was better, I'd throw her out on the streets, but I don't want to be stuck with the girl on my own. And you." he stepped towards me. There was nowhere I could run.

"You fowl little thing, you shouldn't have come back here! You bastard child, you're a mistake! Don't you realize that? A mistake! Nothing more than product of an affair, your mother can't even stand to look at you! You brought this upon us, you devil! You destroyed this family!" he was inches from my face now.

"Father-" I cried.

"Don't call me that! I'm not your father, get out of my house! Get out!" His hand hit my face and I ran out from under him, my hands holding my cheek. My mother stopped me in the hallway.

"What's going on, Henry, what is all this shouting-" I tried to push past her. "Ava, stop it!" She pinned my arms. "Talk to me, just talk to me!"

"Let me go! Can't you see I hate you, let me go!" I ran up the stairs because she was blocking the door. But she followed me. My back was to Vanessa's room.

"Ava, please," she sobbed. "Just let me help you!"

"I don't want your help! I just want you to leave me alone! You've been my mother, you might as well die!" Her eyes widened and then rolled back in her head. She fell to the ground and didn't move I stood there frozen, staring at her. There was a voice in my head again, the same one I had heard before. _You did this. You killed her. Now run before he finds you, run! _So I ran. Out the door and down the beach, not knowing where I was going, just running. For some reason, my legs took me to the Murry's the house was dark, but I wanted to go in. Maybe it was some childish hope that Malcolm, my real father would accept me. But Malcolm wasn't there. I walked through the empty, dark rooms where I'd had all my happiest memories. They were all gone now. The furniture was covered up in white sheets. the house was empty. And I was alone in the world.

"Ava?" I thought I must be imagining it, because nobody would say my name. Nobody wanted me. But then I heard it again. "Ava." It was Mina. She was standing at the foot of the stairs looking as surprised as I felt. "Oh my God, is it you? My little Ava?" I ran into her arms and we held each other, both crying, for what seemed like an eternity.

"Look at you," she said, wiping her tears as she pulled away. "You're not a little girl anymore." I shook my head.

"Mina, let's go. Let's leave and never come back." She looked at me and for a moment, I thought she'd turn me down. Of course she wasn't going to just leave with me. THen she smiled.

"I got a governess job for a man named Mr. Harker. I came back here to collect my things before I leave. You could come with me." I nodded.

"Let's leave tonight." And we did. WE got on a train and left the place that had once been my home behind. I thought of Vanessa as the tree's flew by. But she was with her father. He didn't love me,but he did love her. So he'd look after her. She didn't need me. And if she'd never get better, she'd never have known I was there anyway. Mina and I went to London. Mr. Harker was a rich man who had recently lost his wife. He had two children, an eight year old boy and a six year old girl. And in that house I found a new family. I helped Mina with the children, I adjusted as I had in the school in America. Life went on as life does. And for three happy years I could forget about the horrors I had seen. I could forget that I was different. A year after we arrived, Mina reserved word that Peter had died in Afraid, just as Vanessa said. The news didn't surprise me, I'd considered him dead the moment he walked out my mother's door.

Mr. Harker fell in love with Mina and asked her to marry him. She was as happy as she'd been before, but this time, there was no one to ruin her happiness. Or so I thought.

She came back one night late. I'd had to put the children to bed, which was unusual because Mina was never lacks in her duties to those children. She adored them as much as she did me. She came home wet from the rain and I asked her where she'd been. She'd told me she was out walking, but I knew she was lying. There was a something distant in her eyes I didn't understand. After few more nights of this, I followed her. She went to a part of London I'd never been to before. THe streets were quiet and dark. She went into a house and I crouched under the window. It was there I saw her kissing a man that wasn't Mr. Harker. He was wearing a pointed hat and he had dark hair. He broke the kiss and bit her neck. I heard her gasp and blood poured down her dress. I screamed. The creature's eyes flew to the window. It's two front teeth were pointed and it's eyes were bright red. It caught me as I tried to run away. It was impossibly fast.

"Don't hurt her!" I heard Mina screaming. "Please don't hurt her, she doesn't understand!" It threw me on the floor. The creature looked like a man except for the eyes and teeth. Was this the thing Mina had fallen in love with to take her away from Mr. Harker who'd always been so kind to us?

"This girl means something to you?" the creature hissed.

"Yes, she's my little sister." I hadn't told Mina we shared a father, but she'd always thought of me that way, so it hadn't mattered. "Please, just let her go." The creature growled.

"No. She knows. She must be killed or turned." I hadn't understood what that meant, turned. I didn't know that thing was a vampire.

"I'll stay with you!" Mina pleaded frantically. "I"ll stay with you, I won't go back. That's what you want, isn't it? I promise to stay with you if you let her go." The creature had hesitated. Then it shoved me outside. Mina had shouted from inside the house as the creature slammed the door.

"Ava, run! Go! Find my father, he lives in the mansion in East London, find him, he'll help me!" The door shut. "Find my father! Tell him to save me!" I'd run through the city without stopping. I'd found the mansion easy enough, it was the biggest house I could find, of course it would be his. I'd rapped on the door desperately and a colored man had opened it.

"Please, I have to see Sir. Malcolm!" I begged. The man showed me in. Malcolm had aged visibly in the seven years since I'd seen him. His hair and beard were gray and he looked very tired. He looked confused when he saw me. He didn't recognize me, I realized.

"Sir Malcolm, it's Ava," I told him. "Please, you have to help me." I explained what had happened with Mina, and how I'd gotten to that point, how I'd been sent away to school, what had happened with Vanessa, the voice, my mother, everything. He was very quiet when I finished.

"I believe you," he said after what seemed like an eternity. "We'll find Mina. We'll find her." He let me stay with him and his manservant, Sembene. He never once hugged me or welcomed me as his child. I hadn't' expected him to. He poured over books, went out for countless hours at night but never found anything. A month later, there was a knock on the door. It was pouring, so a visitor was unusual. Sembene opened the door and I realized the woman standing at it.

It was Vanessa, the Vanessa I remembered with long brown hair. She had her arms wrapped around herself and she was dripping wet.

"Ness!" I ran down the stairs into her arms, not caring how wet she was.

"Ava. My baby, my baby sister." She held me tight like she hadn't in so long. I felt whole again with her there. Though I'd always been closer to Mina and Peter, Vanessa and I had a bond I couldn't explain. When she wasn't in my life, I felt alone. Empty. In her arms I felt hope again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Ness," I cried.

"Shh, it's not your fault. None of it is your fault." Her grip on me loosened as Malcolm joined us. "Mina needs our help. Can I come in?" We were both soaked now. Malcolm lead us into the main parlor. We sat on the same chair, I didn't want to be away from her. She told us how Mina had visited her on the beach back home. How she had seemed to possessed by something, then asked for help.

"And there's nothing more?" Malcolm asked, watching the rain.

"No."

"You believe you can reach out to her again?"  
>"Or she to me. Or to Ava. I know you do not credit it." No, he wouldn't Malcolm didn't believe in things he couldn't see.<p>

"You know nothing of me." He turned from the window, his face full of contempt. "Do you know how many men I've killed? In Africa we walked in blood every step. There was a time I would gladly have killed you. And there may come a time when I gladly shall. But for now I can make use of you."

"You don't know what pain is," I told him coldly. "You're too unfeeling."

"I know more," Vanessa said.

"What else?" He'd ignored my comment. Like I wasn't even there to him. Vanessa was showing him more restraint than he deserved. "Forgiveness? Go to your room and search for that, you'll find none in here." She looked away. I glared at him for hurting her.

"Have you imagined for one moment what this has been for me?" she asked. "An unforgivable trasntgrention that has marked me for life." She stood. "You think you've suffered? You think you know blood? You think you've walked on corpses? Spread them from here to the horizon and I have walked further! You weak, foul, lustful, vainglorious man. How dare you presume to speak to me of death."I followed her as she went to leave.

"Then we shall speak of it together."

"Yes."

"We will follow it to Mina."

"Yes."

"And then-"

"You will be done," I told him. "We'll walk on." There was no more to be said. The next year,s we searched for Mina. We didn't' talk about the past. We all lived with our own demons. Mina was our goal, shwe as what drove us on. If we found her, everything would be alright again. And then I'd dreamed of Ethan. And he was my hope now. My light in the darkness. The man that could make me feel like I had worth again. He would help us find Mina, I knew it. And even if we couldn't, with him, I knew I'd never be alone again. But I'd already lost one sibling. I'd let Peter walk out the door, I wouldn't do that with Mina.

Malcolm and Vanessa loved her, they'd do anything to save her. But I loved her in a different way. I loved her enough to kill her.


	6. What Death Can Join Together

We were standing in Vanessa's ruined room. There was still blood running down the broken window and ending in a pool in the middle of the floor. There was shattered glass from the window and the cold November breeze blew back the curtains. I could hear church bells tolling in the distance.

"And you think it was the creature we seek?" Vanessa asked. Her face was blank, arms folded across her chest. Only I could tell she was scared.

"I would assume so, I mean how many of them can their be?" Malcolm reasoned. "They do rather stand out." Why was he so cruel? It wasn't her fault the thing broke into her room, was it?

"Can't stay in this foul room," she retorted with the same amount of contentment in her voice that he'd had. She turned to leave and I followed her.

"Did you sense anything last night?" Malcolm pressed.

"No." Couldn't he see to leave it alone? Of course he couldn't. Because all Malcolm Murray ever thought about was himself. Her feelings didn't matter to him.

"Can you try?"

"You can't summon these things up, it doesn't work that way," I told him irritably over my shoulder. I was practically running to keep up with her pace down the hall. As usual, he pretended he hadn't heard me.

"It was in this house, in your room. For godsake, do something!"

"Don't you think I'm trying? Leave me alone." I almost tripped on the stairs trying to keep up with her. I wished Malcolm would.

"Have you forgotten Mina?" Her stride shorted slightly. "Have you forgotten why we're doing any of this? I've lost my family!" She pivoted at the bottom of the stairs to glare at him.

"I lost my family too, have you forgotten that?"

"I'll try," I said. Them fighting wasn't going to solve anything. And I wanted him to leave Vanessa alone. "Is that good enough for you, your majesty?" I didn't wait for a response. I didn't expect Vanessa to follow me, but she did. I spread my tarot cards out on the table, not meeting her eyes.

"You don't have to fight my battles for me, Ava."

"It's Malcolm, that's not a battle." I shuffled the cards again.

"That's not what I meant."

"I want to help Mina too, you know. Just let me try and then if I find something, Malcolm will shut the hell up for a while." She smiled lightly.

"Be careful."

"I always am." We both knew that was a lie. She left because she knew I couldn't do it with her standing there. The cards never seemed to work when she was in the room, they didn't like her. I drew five cards out of the spread and laid them out in the shape of a cross. But I didn't have to draw them.

"Ava. Help me." It was barely a whisper. I looked back at the table and saw that my cards had moved. They hadn't even made a sound. I flipped over the one at the bottom. It was the V of cups. I turned over a second one. The only thing the two had in common was they both referenced ships. Then the noises I started. I heard the sound of water splashing, a bell ringing. And then screaming. It was all men, and it wasn't normal screaming. It was screaming for their lives had a picture of a ship hung up on the wall. I walked down the hall to where Malcolm and Vanessa were waiting.

"That was fast," she commented. "What did you find?" I realized I had no idea what I'd found, not really. Sounds weren't enough. Why couldn't Mina have given me more? If she could speak, she could tell me where she was.

"I don't know," I sighed, feeling defeated. "All I heard were sounds, something about water, the cards suggested ships. Then there was screaming, like something terrible was happening."

"The port of London, do you think?" Malcolm asked. I shrugged.

"Maybe."

"I'll check the shipping registry, see what I can discover," Malcolm said. Vanessa looked in the direction of the door, though I hadn't heard Sembene let anyone in. A second later, a man was coming around the corner

"Mr. Grey," Malcolm greeted him. Great, now he was coming to the house. I glanced at Vanessa. She seemed surprised. "Please come in."

"Thank you. I've come to make amends to miss Ives for leaving the theater last night."

"Oh, that's not necessary." No, it wasn't. Dorian may act charming and polite, but he had secrets and I didn't like him. But I'd promised Vanessa I'd play nice.

"In that case, would you like to have an adventure?" Adventure? Where, a dark alley somewhere where he could dump her body?

"You mean now?"

"Is there any other time?" He was handsome, I'd give him that. But she had to be smarter than this. Men don't just ask to go on adventures without wanting something in return. She glanced at me.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I'm engaged currently."

"Oh, by all means, you must go," Malcolm said much to my surprise. "The air will do you good." He didn't want her to come with us, I realized. I knew it wasn't because he cared enough to want to keep her safe, but he had a reason. And I did want to protect her. She was looking at me again.

"Go Ness. Have fun. We can handle it." I forced a smile.

"Well then, yes Mr. Grey, I should like an adventure. let me get my coat." She left Malcolm and I alone with prince charming.

"I hope you don't mind me stealing miss Ives away for a bit."

"At your pleasure sir," Malcolm told him. "She is always her own creature, our miss Ives." He left as well, leaving me alone with Dorian. His eyes passed over me quickly, scanning. Then he smiled lightly.

"You don't like me, do you?" I didn't respond. I kept my eyes fixed on his as I leaned against the arm chair behind me. "You can rest easy, I'll let no harm come to your sister."

"You should know something Mr. Grey," I said without breaking eye contact. "The people in my sister's life don't tend to come out unscaved. Maybe it's not her I'm worried about. Maybe it's you." I pushed past him to the door. If he was smart, he'd heed my warning. But from what I'd gathered from Dorian Grey, he was anything but.

"Do you really think we're going to find anything?" I was spread out across the floor on my stomach like a smile child with a pen in my teeth. We'd been going through stacks of newspaper articles about shipping routes for the best part of two hours. The newspapers were spread out on the floor all around me. Malcolm's only response to my question was the scribbling of his pen.

"Well, the autopsy found nothing out of the ordinary," Victor said, coming into the room without a hello. "Beyond signs of malnutrition and incipient anemia. Whatever young Fenton was, he wasn't entirely preternatural." That left a bad taste in my mouth. He was dead because of us. It would have been so much easier to accept if he'd been some kind of horrible creature.

"But he had the power to summon the creature," Malcolm said.

"Yes. I imagine it's rather like bats with echolocation. Communication we cannot see, but it exists. I should discuss it with professor Van Helsing."

"Whose Van Helsing?" I asked.

"An old friend of mine who understand creatures of this nature," Malcolm replied shortly. Why had he told Victor about this friend but not me? "Very good. Let me know what you discover."

Victor eyed the newspaper mess.

"And you?"

"Educating myself on matters nautical." I rolled my eyes.

"More like wasting paper." Sembene had appeared in the doorway. He too eyed the state of the room with curiosity.

"To what end?" Victor could never just drop things. He had to know everything. He was like Peter in that way.

"Possibly undertaking another hunting expedition."

"Oh. When?"

"You're not coming," I said, not looking up from the newspaper I was tossing to the side. He hadn't moved. "Good day, Victor." With Malcolm's lack of protest, he left the room. I felt slightly bad about it, but the truth was I didn't want him around. He reminded me too much of the brother I lost and in some strange way, I wanted to protect him the way I hadn't been able to protect Peter. Like that would make it better somehow.

"Sembene, do you need something?" I asked. He was still standing in the doorway.

"I have been thinking about your daughter," he said to Malcolm. He rarely spoke that many words at a time. Especially not in English which meant this conversation involved me, he spoke it for my benefit.

"And?"

"Say you find her, but say she cannot be saved." We both stared at him. I had only lived in this house for a year, but in that short time I had never known Sembene to speak his mind.

"If I find her, she will be saved," Malcolm answered sternly. I looked at the floor and Sembene shook his head.

"No. For all the blood we share, for all the miles we have walked, Malcolm, we are not the same. Where I come from we know some people cannot be saved. Say your daughter is one of them. What then?" The choice was obvious, but it wasn't something I'd let myself think of. Sembene glanced at me then back at Malcolm. "Know what you are going to do." I saw Victor walking down the road from the window. I got up, pushed past Sembene and ran after him. The air was freezing and I wasn't wearing a coat or shoes, but it didn't bother me.

"Victor!" He turned and gave me a bewildered look. I"m sorry I sent away." I was out of breath by the time I reached him. "It was unkind of me." He smiled lightly.

"Ava, we both know you're not kind." I wanted to resort, badly, but I held my tongue. "What do you want?"

"To apologize." I hated apologizing. Especially to people who didn't deserve it. I shook the angry thoughts away, the guarded thoughts that pushed away anybody who came into my life. ust let him in, how hard can it be? He was looking at me expectantly. I took a deep breath. Hard. It's very hard.

"I had a brother. His name was Peter and he was a lot like you." Something in his eyes flickered when I said the name. Like recognition. I ignored it. "He thought like you. He was smart like you. He even a little like you. Maybe he was a bit kinder, but you remind me of him." He laughed.

"That's what Malcolm said. He said I reminded him of his dead son. God, is that the only reason you ran after me in the cold with no shoes on, Ava? Because I remind you of a dead person?"

"No, it wasn't," I said angrily. "But now I suppose you'll never know the reason." I turned away from him but he grabbed my arm and before I knew it I was being pushed against a parked carriage. And before my mind could process that he'd just shoved me and retaliate, his lips were on mine. I'd kissed boys before, when I was at school in America. But that was different. Those were thirteen year old boys who'd never kissed before. Their hearts were pounding because they were so scared to be that near a girl. I wasn't sure if Victor had kissed a woman before, but he certainly wasn't a boy and he definitely wasn't afraid. Unlike American school boys, his kiss meant something. He was the one who pulled away because I was too shocked to move.

"Do I still remind you of your brother?" he whispered. "You're not a little girl anymore. When you want something, say it." He stalked away. I watched him go, unable to move from the spot I was in. There was people all over the street, but none of them seemed to have noticed what just happened. It was a long time before I managed to walk back to the house. I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. I didn't know how to process what I was feeling. The only conclusion I could come to was I was afraid of it. I was afraid of love because the only thing I'd ever seen it do was destroy. My mother and Malcolm. Mina, Vanessa and the captain. Love made people unable to control themselves. And the last thing I wanted was to lose control. I was sitting in the parlor looking over more newspapers to take my mind off Victor when Vanessa came in.

"You're home already?" I asked.

"Yes." She was grinning. "What's all this?"

"Just ship reports." I threw the newspaper behind the couch. "How was your adventure, where did he take you?" I turned myself around to look at her eagerly. I didn't like Dorian, but I wanted to support her. And keep her from seeing that something was wrong with me.

"He took me to get photographed." She sat down next to me and picked up a newspaper.

"Photographed? Why?" She laughed.

"I don't know. I'm meeting him for dinner later."  
>"Ooo."<p>

"I thought you didn't like him."  
>"Oh, I don't." I snached the newspaper out of her hands. "But you deserve a night off and you deserve to be happy. And if Dorian makes you happy, then I'll tolerate him."<p>

"Do you know what I don't deserve?" she asked.

"What?"

"You." She kissed the top of my head and got up.

"Do you want help?" I asked as she headed for the stairs.

"No, wait down here, I want to surprise you." I hadn't seen her that happy in a long time. Vanessa smiling when we were alone, when she wasn't putting on a show, was rare. Maybe I did like Dorian, just a little bit. I joined Malcolm in the study while I was waiting for her. Her footsteps made me look up from my work and stare at the doorway till she came threw it.

"Oh," Malcolm breathed.

"Ness," I gasped. This dress was prettier than the one she'd worn to Lyle's party. It was black and it swirled around her body in just the right way. She would definitely impress him.

"Go on, show us the whole picture," Malcolm ordered. He was going nice. He really didn't want her to get suspicious. I still didn't understand why he didn't want her to come with us, but I wasn't going to question it now. Vanessa spun around dramatically. I got up and hugged her.

"You look beautiful, Ness."

"Thank you. What are you doing tonight?"

"Looking through more newspapers, I think." I shot Malcolm a look.

"I'm bond to the ledger, I'm afraid," Malcolm answered for me. "The geographical society is becoming concerned about the cost of the expedition." As if he was actually going to go. "Enjoy your evening, my dear."

"It's not to..."

"It's perfect," I told her.

"Are you sure you're alright alone?"

"Ness, I'm fine. I've got Sembene here to protect me."

"No cards while I'm gone."

"I promise."

"Malcolm, make sure she-"  
>"Ness, go!" I pushed her towards the door. "I'll be fine I'm a big girl." She hugged me again and held on for a little too long. "I'll see you when you get back."<p>

"I love you!" She shouted over the sound of a rushing carriage on her way out the door.

"I love you too, now hurry up! Don't keep him waiting." I waved and she finally went. I went back into the study. "Malcolm, this better be good."

"It will be. I've sent for Mr. Chandler, he'll be accompanying us."

"Accompanying us where? I've been looking through those ship records all day, there's none coming in or out of the London Port that could have passengers."

"Get your coat." He walked towards Sembene to get his own.

"That's not an answer!" We got into the carriage and Sembene drove us to a street downtown where we waited for Ethan. I waved when I saw him through the crowds.

"Thank you for meeting us," Malcom said.

"Where's miss Ives?"

"She went out to dinner with Dorian Grey," I informed him.

"Dorian Grey?!"

"Right?!"

"Come along," Malcolm said tiredly. "We have a distance to walk." Ethan planted his feet.

"First tell me what we're doing here."

"I second that," I agreed.

"We're going to explore a plague ship." He turned and started to walk, knowing we'd follow. Plague ship, that was brilliant. I hadn't thought to look at those. That wa the perfect place for a vampire clan to hide. And Malcolm wasn't lying about the long walk. But Ethan didn't say a word to me the whole time.

"What wrong?" I asked him.

"It's Brona. She's not well." I slipped my hand into his.

"I'm sorry."  
>"Have you considered an institution?" Malcolm asked helpfully.<p>

"I went to take a look at one. It was a prison. People in big rooms waiting to die." Like an asylum.

"You hold out hope for her then?"

"I hold out dignity."

"I think you're doing the right thing," I said, putting my arm through his. "It's the way Brona will want it this way."

"I would pay for a private asylum in the country," Malcolm said. There was that word. Asylum.

"I appreciate that. We'll stay at home." He seemed surprised by the gesture. I wasn't. Malcolm wanted Ethan's trust so he could smuggle him off to Africa. I was going to have to win it first if I hadn't already.

"She will need orphants before too long for the pain. She will cease being who she is."

"Then I'll love who she becomes." I smiled. Men like Ethan were so rare. He was the truly only decent man I'd ever met.

"Berth seventeen is ahead," Sembene announced.

"Thank God, I'm freezing." I rubbed my gloved hands together. "Why this one out of all the other plague ships?"

"It came from Ciro four months ago and has been in quarantine ever since for what they're vaguely describing as typhas or an unknown foreign disease. You recall the hydrologic tattoos we discovered?" They were Egyption. This ship was from Ciro. "That and the fact the ship's in quarantine is suggestive."

"Of what?" Ethan asked.

"Chicanery." The streetlights dimmed as we got closer to the ship. The darker it go, the more I wished Vanessa was here. But I had to grow up and stop being afraid of the dark sometime, didn't I? I glanced at Sembene. What if he was right? What if Mina couldn't' be saved? What if by some stroke of luck, she was on this ship, we found her, we brought her home, and she was just like Fenton? Screaming in the basement because she was so hungry, lunging at us with animal eyes. I could bare that. Not Mina. Ethan's arm brushed mine.

"Stay close to me." I nodded, falling into step behind him. I was glad he was there. The boat was silent and very dark. Malcolm handed me the lantern. I felt better now that I was in control of the light. We split off, looking for any signs of life on the huge ship. Ethan followed closely behind me. I saw Malcolm stop in front of a body. My heart skipped a beat.

"It's not her." And it dropped. There were more sleeping bodies, all of them blond. I turned the face of one them, not knowing what I was expecting. I let it fall again. A rat scurried across my shoe and I jumped back into Ethan.

"She must be here somewhere," Malcolm muttered. I didn't touch another one of the vampires.

"None of these are Mina, she's not here," I told him. At the sound of my voice, there was a loud screech. I heard the sound of Ethan's gun as a body shoved me to the floor. I screamed as the loud popping of shots echoed off the boat walls. The vampire on me fell to the side and Ethan pulled me to my feet. He kept me behind him with one arm while he fired with the other. Malcolm shot the vampires near him with two guns and Sembene slashed his sword through the air. My lantern had fallen on the ground. I picked it up and threw it at one of the vampires. Shes screeched as the flames burned her. My fire spread as the men shoved the screaming vampires away from them. Malcolm fired a final shot and the last vampire fell into the pile.

"Alright?" Ethan asked me. I nodded shakily. The flames had rose and were cracking all around us. I felt the heat on my face. It was time to go. The whole boat would be consumed in a matter of minutes. A growl lead my eyes to the other side of the wall of flames. It was another red eyed creature, like the one underground, like the one who had broken into Vanessa's room. But it wasn't alone. It had a blond haired woman under it's arm that at first glanced would have looked like any of the other vampires that had just attacked us.

"Mina!" I screamed. Malcolm whipped around, but Mina had turned to me.

"Ava!"

"Mina!" Malcolm ran towards the flames like he meant to jump in them to get to her. Sembene grabbed him before flaming mast could crush him to death.

"Father!" Malcolm struggled to get to her, but Sembene was dragging him towards the exit.

"Mina! Mina!" In the back of my mind, I knew we couldn't get to her. The flames were too high and she was on the other side. But reason didn't seem to exist. I just wanted to get to her, I wanted to save her like I hadn't been able to before. There were arms around my waist before I could move towards her, dragging me after Sembene and Malcolm.

"Ava, there's nothing we can do!" Ethan shouted as he struggled with me. Her eyes met mine before the flames exploded and she disappeared. I let Ethan take me out. It had started to rain, but I didn't feel it. A crowd had gathered around the flaming ship. Ethan pushed me through them and I leaned on him because I was afraid I was going to fall over. I'd seen her. After more than a year, I'd seen she was alive. Not a ghost or some type of illusion, she was really there. she wanted to be saved, she was still my Mina. And we'd left her. I wasn't sure how I got back to the house. Only that the next thing I was aware of was sinking into a chair in the parlor and Sembene was lighting a fire.

We were all silent as we watched more flames crackle. If I hadn't lit that fire, we would have with us right now. Why couldn't I do anything right? Why did my actions always make it worse? Ethan put his hand on my shoulder.

"We'll find her again." I leaned back into him. I was thankful he was there, even if his words didn't fix it.

"Will we?" Malcolm asked bitterly.

"At least you know she's alive."

"Is that what you call it?" I winced at the harshness in his voice. I didn't want to listen to Malcolm's disappointment. I wanted to crawl into bed and never wake up again. If we had got Mina back tonight, would he have accepted me? Would he ever look at me the way he had her?

"Let me tell you something pal," Ethan said. He'd been looking at me, watching my face. "You're pretty goodman sure you know what's going on all the time. My father's the same. He just stands above everything and moves all the little toy soldiers round."

"Touched as I am by your childhood recollections, what's your point?"

"There are things you can't control. There are battles you lose." He started to put on his coat and I looked up. I didn't want him to leave. "At the end of the day, the only thing we have is the people we trust. Like miss Ives."

"And you trust her?" Malcolm asked.

"I do. And you'd better start doing the same, or get ready to lose a lot of battles." He smoothed my hair as he passed to walk out the door. I wanted my sister. I wanted her here to comfort me, her to be brave for me so I didn't have to do it. I wrapped my arms around my knees and buried my head in them. Malcolm didn't make a sound as we sat there for what seemed like forever. Eventually I heard the door open and shut. I jumped up, feeling the relief pouring over me. She was home, I'd be alright now. But when she took one step in the doorway, everything shattered.

She was drenched from head to foot, her hair was disheveled and there were bruises on her arms. But it was her eyes that made me stop. I wasn't looking at my sister.

"Vanessa, I have a lot to tell you." Malcolm's voice was somewhere in the background, muted, unimportant. "I haven't been honest with you about-" No, no, no. Not again, not now. This couldn't be happening again! I wanted to scream, but nothing was coming out. Her head tilted up and suddenly her feet weren't touching the floor, She was levitated, spinning slowly like a kite string. A voice echoed in my head, a voice I hadn't heard in years but that had filled my nightmares to make up for lost time.

"Hello little Ava. What games shall we have now?"


	7. Possession

**Thank you to everyone who's reviewed! Sorry this took so long, but I wanted to make sure I got it right :)**

It was pouring. The raindrops were chasing each other down the windowpane, but none of them were winning. The streets were far from empty despite the storm. Carriages wound their ways through the groups of men running with their coats shielding their heads, the woman with their umbrella's talking to each other like it was any other day. And to all of them it was. They went off to work, went to the shops, minded their children. They all walked past this house, but they had no idea of the nightmares inside of it. It was like a prison and I was trapped within it's walls. I wanted to crawl out the window, to get to the normal people doing their normal everyday things. I wished I could be like them. But I knew I never would be. I didn't deserve to be. This was my punishment, this was my hell.

My feet hurt from standing so long. My arm had gone numb because I was leaning it against the window. I didn't remember when I'd last moved or even flinched. And though I watched the people on the other side of the glass, my main focus was on the reflection. I watched Malcolm pace back and forth. Sembene came in and out of the room, at one point placing a plate of food beside me. I hadn't touched it. I was watching the woman sleeping on the couch. I was waiting for her to wake up. I knew when she had, though she didn't move. I felt it. Like eyes baring into me, though her eyes were closed. Watching. Waiting. Come on Ava, move. Challenge me. Get angry. I'd played this game before. I knew all the rules, all the tricks. And as I stood there staring out the window, watching the people pass, watching the rain fall, I was thinking of a way to win. It was over an hour, according to the reflection of the grandfather clock, after she'd woken up that she finally spoke.

"To be beautiful is to be almost dead, isn't it?" Not a muscle had moved. Her voice seemed louder after such a long silence. Maybe it was because I'd been waiting for it so long. Her legs twitched. "The latitude of the perfect woman." I saw Malcolm staring at her from his chair. But she wasn't talking to him. "The languid ease. The obeisant." I didn't look at her, I could see all I wanted in the reflection. "The spirit drained, anemic, pale as ivry and weak as a kitten." She stretched her hands above her head. Malcolm had no idea what she was talking about, but I did. Because they were about me. Almost as if there'd been a silent conversation happening between the two of us for the past hour. Or a battle of wills.

"There's a trade for photographs of dead woman. Did you know that, Avy?" That had been Mina's nickname for me. But it wasn't Mina talking to me and it wasn't Vanessa either. I hadn't been talking to my sister since she left the house yesterday morning. "In certain quarters, the corpses are improved with cosmetics and posed in postures of abstract surrender and photographed. Men circulate the photo's and pleasure themselves." Malcolm stood up. Or maybe he'd stood up when she said my name. I hadn't noticed. I was focusing all my energy on not turning around. If I watched through the glass, I could pretend it wasn't real. That I was only a spectator. That this wasn't my life.

"Vanessa." I watched Malcolm kneel beside the couch. "Can you hear me?" Of course she can hear you, she's been watching you for hours. He thought he knew everything, but with this, he knew nothing.

"Of course."

"Last evening you went into a… spell or a fit of a kind."

"A fit? She was floating of the damn ceiling," I said matter of factually. Like people did that everyday. A man dropped the cart of fruit he was rolling. He ran to catch it all before the apples rolled into the gutters. Another man came to help him.

"Did I? How arresting."

"It was unnatural. You've been asleep since-"

"Who dressed me?" In my head, I heard a gun fire, silencing a noisy crowd. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, gather round. The games are about to began.

"Ava did." He sounded confused, but his voice was still hushed like he was attending to a sick patient. Perhaps he knew exactly what was going on, he just wanted to pretend, like me, that it wasn't.

"Did you make the tea then?"

"What? No. Sembene did." I saw her smile. The people were gathering around. They were holding their breath waiting for the first act to began. The ringleader was entering the ring, he was raising his whip.

"You weren't there to dress me as a child either. You were away on some trek or other. Who could keep them straight? We tried to follow your progress on that map.. Do you remember that, Avy? With the little red pins. But he was in teraigneto. That's where he said he was going." Malcolm was the chess pieces, but I was the opponent. "What adventure in those woods. Do you feel you are there again? Father?" I watched Malcolm's face.

"Mina?"

"No," I answered, but he didn't listen. He never listened to me. He'd rather listen to Mina.

"Somewhat." She picked up the tea. "Fat mother wept, of course. Is there anything more comical than a fat woman weeping?" I pushed my head against the glass. "You loathed fatness. Unlike those other woman." My knuckles were turning white from gripping the windowsill. "But fat mother wept because she missed you. And feared for you. Wept and wept and then she bit into her pillow so we wouldn't hear her. And then she turned to landam to sleep at all! Poor fat thing." She laughed like a little girl would. Like Mina did a thousand times whispering in Vanessa's ear about the servants. It had always made me feel left out to see them giggling together while I was too young to understand or be included. Mina had always tried though. Mina always wanted me to be happy. She never ignored me. And those eyes were not my sister's.

"Tell me about those other woman." She sat up and Malcolm backed away, finally realizing the gravity of the situation. "Not Mrs. Ives, we know all about her, don't we Avy?"

"Stop," I said. I was losing. I wasn't good at this game, or at least my opponent was better. The goal was to make me turn away from the window and look at he.. To make me mad, to make bad things happen. Malcolm was closing the parlor door.

"He might have attended the funeral at least, for decent's sake!" My thoughts, not hers. Malcolm thought this was about him, but it wasn't and never had been. Once it had Vanessa, it was always about me.

"You stop this right now," Malcolm ordered.

"Ooo. It's that face, is it? The hard face for the niggers. Scare them into obeying. The porters and slaves. But we were speaking of the woman. They were as follows. The whores in Zanzibar where you landed, mostly north Africans, almost white. Then the native woman along the way. They enjoyed you pawing at them, or you convinced yourself you did. Oh, you're looking at Avy like she'll think less of you, but she already knows all this, don't you Avy?" I could feel the hate building, the uncontrollable rage. And I kept telling myself that this was how I let her- it win, that I needed to control it, that I could. But I didn't want to. I wanted to let myself get mad.

"He made Peter fuck them to prove he was a man. He didn't enjoy it, but he would do anything for his Daddy. Accept make a proper offspring like he wanted. So on they went, tribe to tribe, father and son fucking the Masai, the manila, the bachwani-"

"Shut up." The cup of tea on the table was shaking, then the table itself was shaking.

"The Burundi!"

"Shut up!" As I turned, the light bulbs above us shattered and the glass fell to the ground. Vanessa, or the creature, wasn't smiling anymore. She was staring at Malcolm with rage that I felt. Papers from the desk started flying at Malcolm as he backed away. Then the book cupboard opened and they joined the paper, hitting off the walls, smashing glass. Scrolls, trinkets, spyglasses, they were all flying and hitting the ground. The bookcase fell over, the chart table skidded across the floor. There were so many things flying through the air, like a hurricane of madness. Somehow nothing was hitting me. In fact, none of the objects were coming in my direction at all.

Sembene pushed open the door, his eyes fixed on Vanessa. He hit and she went limp. Everything stopped. The papers were the last things to float to the floor. It was silent. The room was a complete disaster, like a tidal wave had ripped through it. Not a single object was in it's place. Sembene picked up Vanessa and carried her out. Malcolm was staring at me. Like I had done this. I made the teacup and the light break. The creature had only continued what I started. I ran out of the room, I ran from his eyes and his judgment and his questions. I ran from myself. And in my head I heard the voice of triumph as the crowd exited the ring. _I win again._

"Hello, Ava." I was sitting on the second floor landing when Malcolm and Victor came up. It was close enough so I could hear her if she needed me, but far enough away to feel safe.

"You called him?" I accused Malcolm. He didn't answer.

"Good to see you, too." I stood.

"She doesn't need a doctor," I said sharply.

"Well, can I see what I can do?" We stared at each other for a few seconds, then I moved out of his way. He was the last person I wanted to see, but a part of me still trusted him. She was brushing her hair in the mirror. I stayed against the far wall.

"Honestly, I'm sorry they troubled you," she said. It was half Vanessa, but wouldn't be for long. I wondered what she'd say if it was just the two of us. I'd considered going in the room. I'd stared at the door, gotten up and twisted the knob, then sat back down again. For hours. "I'm quite well again."

"And where did you receive your medical degree, doctor Ives? Would you excuse us?" He liked to pretend he was a doctor. A good one at least. He also liked to pretend what had happened between us didn't. I didn't want him here. I wanted this house quartered. Minimize the clasutizes. Malcolm gestured for me to exit the room in front of him.

"Vanessa." She raised her head. "Love you." She didn't say it back. If she had, I wouldn't have left the room. I stood outside the door.

"We should go downstairs" Malcolm said. "Give them some privacy." I didn't answer and I didn't move. "Ava, we should talk-" I leaned my head against the wall away from him.

"Call Sembene up to wait outside the door." He gave me a questioning look. "You like to think you know everything, but you don't know anything about this." I was meeting his eyes now. "Trust me. I lived through this before. You ran away." He called Sembene up. We stood silently in the hall and I wished I could hear what they were saying. Victor finally came out. His face was drained of all color. Like he'd seen a ghost.

"Like I told you. We don't need a doctor." I pushed past him and went downstairs. I knew Sembene wouldn't leave her. I wrapped my arms around my knees in an armchair. Victor settled onto the couch across from me.

"I've sent for Mr. Chandler to assist us," Malcolm said. He was pacing again. They'd cleaned up the room, but most of the things in it were broken. "It's happened before, but never to this extent. She fights it the best she can." He should have asked for my option. After all, I was the one who watched it happen.

"What brings on the fits?" Victor asked. He was looking at it from a scientific standpoint. It was fantasy to assume he was here as anything more than a witness.

"I don't know. Emotion of some kind."

"What brought on this one?"

"I don't know."  
>"Dorian Grey." They both looked at me. "She went out with him last night. She came back like this." Victor addressed me now.<p>

"I have to ask you a difficult question. Has she suffered any sexual trauma in her life?"

"Stop looking at this like a doctor. It's not going to help her." I turned away from him and he tried again.

"Is she intact?"

"I would have thought so," Malcolm answered. "I place no judgment on her."  
>"No one's interested in your judgement," I told him. Victor was playing with the tarot cards. I leaned forward to see which one he'd picked. He put it down before I could.<p>

"Miss Ives is manifesting a deep psychosocial responsiveness. I would say the root of her condition lies there. And guilt. Something or someone has triggered it. Ava, you think it was Mr. Grey?"

"I know it was Mr. Grey."

"Alright, let's imagine this." He was twirling the card in his fingers. "She has an erotic encounter with Mr. Grey, perhaps her first, we don't know, and it involes into some kind of sexual extremity that produces feelings of guilt or shame." He looked at me for confirmation.

"No. The truth of that matter is doctor, when she had this erotic encounter, she woke something up. Not in her mind, it's real. It can speak to you and it can hurt you. It knows things about you it shouldn't. And none of your doctor tools are going to help us." I noticed he was staring at the card in his hand. A spider crawled up his finger and he dropped the card. More spiders came out from under the other cards sprawled across the table until the wood seemed to be moving.

"This is beyond your area of expertise, doctor," I whispered. "This is not your game." They were spreading to the floor and I raised my feet up on the chair. A bloodcurdling scream came from upstairs and we all looked at the ceiling. They ran to her, I didn't move. The spiders slowly disappeared. When they had, I went upstairs, but not into the room where the rest of them were. I waited in the hallway listening to the screams. This couldn't be happening again. I thought it was over, I thought we beat this. I could hear them struggling with her. Malcolm came out and walked past me. He came back up moments later with Ethan behind him.

"Ava, are you alright?" I nodded. Unlike Victor, I was happy he was here. Even if there was nothing he could do. I followed them into the room. Not even a gas lamp was lit, so it took my eyes a second to adjust. She was curled up against the bed rocking. There was an animal type growl coming out of here. But she was fighting it. Her eyes looked scared, they looked human.

"My God," Ethan breathed. He walked over to her and I followed him.

"Mr. Chandler?" It was an effort to even get the words out. She was constantly pushing it back. She'd told me once it was like pushing on a door while someone with ten times your strength was pushing it against you. "Forgive me, I'm not myself." He knelt beside her.

"My dear miss Ives. Can I help you in any way?"

"You have no idea how I fight this thing. Ava." She held out her hand and I took it, sinking to the ground next to her.

"What thing?" Ethan asked.

"This thing inside me." She was gripping my hand so hard it hurt. I wiped a sweaty strand of hair behind her ear. I was starting to remember how it had been before, how I'd coped with it. It was these moments when she was my sister that I held onto. Remembered she was in there. But they always ended quickly. If they were there at all, I could never tell. "May I ask you a question, Mr. Chandler?"

"Of course."

"Did you fuck him or did he fuck you?" He sat back and I stared at him. "The beautiful boy of our dreams, the irresistible one. You know who I mean. He fucked you didn't he?" The three other men in the room were moving towards us. "Did you enjoy it? I think we'll tell Brona." Her hand dropped from mine as she crawled towards him. "We'll tell Brona. Of course, she already knows the boy. Didn't she tell you? I don't need to tell you how much she enjoyed it. Ask her to show ya the pictures!"

"The sedative, doctor," Malcolm ordered calmly.

"You're drugging her?" I demanded, tearing my eyes away from Ethan.

"Oh, is the child killer back for more? No sons you can kill here Malcolm!" She lunged at him and Sembene and Victor held her back.

"Get your hands off me virgin doctor! Leave her you imbeciles! Leave her to me! Ava, don't let them hurt me!" She started yelling in a different language, Aramaic. My father, or Vanessa's father that I'd thought was mine, had demanded that our tutor teach it to us. Vanessa would come up with games where we used it as our secret language. Not even Mina knew it. It was our special thing. And I knew when she started speaking it that it was my sister giving me a message. But what she was saying made me truly scared for the first time since this started. _Let me die. Let me die. Let me die. _She kept saying it until the sedative kicked in. Ethan caught her before she hit the floor.

"What wrong with her?" Ethan was downing his third glass of scotch.

"She's been possessed the devil," I answered nonchalantly. I was in the chair closest to the fire watching the flames. We'd moved into the library and it had gotten dark. Malcolm was sitting opposite me and Victor was sitting on the winding stairs. When no one contradicted me, Ethan let out a breath.

"Well fuck me." He turned to Victor. "You're a doctor, do something."

"This is a bit beyond my usual practice."

"Told you." He sent me a glare. Malcolm stood up.

"There is I believe a larger plan at work here. Something beyond even the monstrous we have witnessed. I spoke to an egyptologist who suggested the creature we seek might believe miss Ives to be an incarnation of the goddess Amanet."

"A goddess?" I asked. "Really? And did this man you were talking to also consume an excessive amount of magic mushrooms?"

"Should that creature take hold of her, it would unleash untold horrors."

"For Christ sake, we gotta get her a priest," Ethan muttered.

"Don't be insulting," Victor said. He was ringing his hands nervously. "Might as well call a witch doctor who an old gypsy woman."

"Shut the fuck up," I told him.

"Ava," Malcolm sighed. He sounded tired. "No priest, we cannot bring anyone else into this."

"So what's the plan?" Ethan asked. Malcolm looked at me. For the first time in my life, he was asking for my opinion because he didn't know and I did.

"We keep her alive while she fights this thing," I told them. "We show her she's not alone. She trusts us." I looked at Victor. "But you've gotta be in and out. The doors right there."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Ethan?"

"You know I will." I could see a question building in his eyes. "Do you know what she was saying to you?"

"It was Arabic, we were taught it as children." Three sets of eyes were fixed on me. "She said let me die." Ethan put his glass down. It was very quiet. So was all of the next week. Little words were spoken between the four of us. Only her screams broke it. When she wasn't under it's spell, she slept. That's when I'd sit with her. I knew Ethan was always right outside the door in case I needed him. I would watch her sleep. It was when she was quiet that I thought about what she'd said to me. What it meant. If she couldn't fight this thing, she wanted to die. And she wanted me to be the one to pull the trigger.

"Ava." I opened my eyes. I'd been falling asleep in the chair by her bed. Her eyes were open, more forced than they had been. "Love you too." I moved to sit on the bed next to her, but she'd already fallen back to sleep. She may not have been awake at all. I kissed her head. It was the first time I'd cried. I did end up falling asleep in the chair because the next thing I knew Ethan was carrying me to my room.

"It's alright," he assured me when he saw I'd woken up. He put me on my bed and went to leave.  
>"Ethan?" He turned.<p>

"Do you believe in God?" He sat on the end of my bed. I could feel dried tears on my face. He thought about it for a second.

"Well, I believe in hell. And if there's a hell, then there's gotta be a heaven."

"Why?"

"I think things in this world have balance out. Like fire and water. Men and woman. Good and evil. So yes, if Vanessa's possessed by the devil than I believe in God. What about you? Do you believe in God?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if there was a God, he wouldn't let these things happen." Ethan sighed. He put the covers over me and rested his hand on my knee.

"Sometimes the worst things happen to the best people. It's a test to see if they persevere, or if they become like all the others. And the ones who do earn a place in heaven." I smiled.

"That sounds like a fairytale to me. If there's a God, then I'm very angry with him." I turned towards the wall. After a while I felt him get up and leave. I woke up to screaming. The other were already there, Victor was lying on the ground. She was running her fingernails up and down the wall. They were bleeding and she'd created claw mark indents in the wallpaper. She threw her head back and screamed. Marks were appearing on her skin, marks like the one one the red eyed monster. She started to claw at her arm she had at the wall. The others all rushed forward to restrain her. My feet wouldn't move. Victor knocked her out again. I left before they could carry her back to the bed. I didn't go back to sleep, I knew it was pointless. We all gathered in the library again.

"Is that morphine?" Victor was injecting something into his arm.

"Yep."

"What causes the addiction?" I didn't know why this was suddenly relevant. Maybe just something to break the silence.

"Pain."

"My turn upstairs," Malcolm said. He got up to relieve Ethan. Victor went to look out the window. Probably to avoid talking to me.

"How is she?" I asked when Ethan came in.

"Sleeping I think." We were all exhausted. "So what the hell do we do now?"

"I'm going to try transfusion in the morning," Victor said. "Some vitamins. Essential proteins. That will keep her alive to fight on anyway."

"Fight on," Ethan echoed.

"But for all our efforts, we may have to let her go."

"Go where?"

"Do you believe in God?"

"We've already had this conversation tonight," I told him, taking a seat on the stairs. "The ruling was no." Ethan got up and shut the door.

"I have to tell you something. I'm not sure Sir Malcolm is being honest with us."

"He never is."

"This is different. I know he doesn't want her to die, but I'm not quite sure why he wants her to live."

"He cares for her. She's like a daughter," Victor said like it was obvious.

"No, she's not," I told him. "I'm not even a daughter to him."

"You know the saddest thing I ever saw," Ethan said randomly. "When the army passes by a native tribe, they take the children away. They cut off their hair. They take away their medicine bags. Give them new names. John Smith. William Sherman. Then they ship them east to boarding school."

"What for?" Victor asked.

"That's not the worst. Sometimes the John Smith or William Sherman would escape and make it back to their home tribe. Well, they'd forgotten their language. Their stories. They are unwelcome. So what do they do? They don't fit in either world."

"Like Vanessa," I said softly.

"Like miss Ives."

"So what do they do?"

"They roam. And they die." Victor got up and went back to the window.

"Oh it's snowing."

"Alright?" I said. "That does happen in December." I turned to Ethan. "Can I ask you a favor?"  
>***<p>

He handed me the gun and my hand fell a little. I didn't think I'd be so afraid of it. It also made me feel powerful to hold something that could cause so much damage. And it probably wasn't good to feel that way, but I was a monster after all.

"Heavier than you thought," Ethan said. He was standing close by in case things went downhill. "The trick is not pulling the barrel up when you're aiming because of the weight." He raised his hand to show me and I copied. "Point the gun down." He pulled out his own to demonstrate. "Carefully pull back the hammer with the other hand." I copied his movements, trying to keep my hands from shaking.

"It's like holding death," I muttered.

"You'll get use to that too. Here." He put his arms around me from behind, raising it with me to point at the bottles we'd set up across the basement. "Put your finger on the trigger gently." With his finger over mine, I felt more confident. I knew he wouldn't let me kill us. "Now, this is going to be very loud."

"Great." He chuckled.

"When I tell you, I want you to take an easy breath out then inhale. At the top of the inhale, I want you to gently squeeze the trigger." He let his hands drop from mine. "Don't jerk it, just gently squeeze." I fixed my eyes on the bottles. "Easy exhale." I let the breath slide from my lips. It was shaky. "And inhale. Fire." I pulled the trigger. The noise was ear shattering and my hand jerked back into my face, but I hit the bottle on the far right.

"Alright!" Ethan said encouragingly.

"Can I go again?" I asked.

"Go insane, kid." I pushed the revolver back and shot again. After a few more shots, I managed to hit another bottle. "Take easy, Annie Oakley!"

"You do it," I laughed.

"No, no, no." I made a pouty face. "Look, I was a professional sharpshooter so don't feel-"

"Come on pleeease?" He raised his gun and mine and shot a dozen bullets in succession. All of the bottles fell to the ground. I cheered.

"What about a riffle, do you have a riffle?" Sembene appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Sir Malcolm was inquiring about the noise."

"Uh oh, we're in trouble with Dad," Ethan said and I laughed. It felt good to laugh.

"Thanks Sembene, but tell him to mind his own goddamn business."

"Yes miss." He went back upstairs. I hoped he wouldn't actually tell him that. I thought he probably would. When we were done cleaning up the broken glass, it was back to business. Malcolm was still on his watch when she started screaming again. Then it turned to crying. That had been happening a lot. I sat on the stairs and waited. Though I wasn't there with her, I couldn't keep forcing myself in that room, I felt like I was supporting her somehow by sitting there. Ethan joined me after a while. Silent company. I leaned my head on his shoulder. When she stopped crying, I moved to a chair in the hallway across from Sembene.

"Malcolm's been in there a long time," I said. "I should check on him."

"If you wish, miss." He knew I wasn't asking permission. Malcolm was sitting on the bed. They'd tied her arms to the bedposts to keep her from hurting them or herself.

"-you're in a very special place, perhaps between life and death itself. So is our Mina." He hadn't noticed me come in. She looked coherent, but I was standing in the shadows so she couldn't see me either. "You must be close to her. Reach out to her. Find her."

"Don't…" she whispered. I wanted to step in. To throw him away from her, but the curious eager to see what he'd do next overpowered it.

"You must. We might never have this chance again."

"All of this… all of this you wanted it."

"No-"

"You allowed it to continue." She was right. He said no to the priest, he hadn't been doing anything to help. God, I hated him.

"Just try!" I couldn't move, not even when she started crying. I knew if I did, there would be another destroyed room in this house. I had to learn to control the anger.

"How cruel you are." Her crying made it worse. I stayed perfectly still, I swallowed it, I went somewhere else.

"Find her."

"Get the fuck away from her." He turned and saw me standing there. But nothing had exploded. He followed me when I left the room, I knew he would. Ethan and Victor were standing outside the door. I wasn't sure if they'd been listening."Whatever game you think you're playing, it's enough."

"Ava hold on," Victor said.

"We have to get her a priest. Tonight. Right now," Ethan agreed. But I didn't like the priest idea. I felt like it would make it worse.

"We can bring no one else into this. What might she do to them?"

"That's bullshit!" I yelled.

"She is dying," Victor said. "The battle's over, we lost. Or it won, who gives a fuck?!"

"It's time to do what she wants," Ethan advocated.

"She wants to die," Malcolm reminded him.

"Then let her." I stared at him.

"You mean a priest for her last rights?" I asked.

"Yes." I thought he was on my side. I could never let my sister die, I couldn't live with that even if it was what she wanted. She was holding that thing off for me. She would have given up if it was only the men in the house. No one to fight for. She was suffering for me, I couldn't give up on her.

"Or for the ritual of exorcism," Malcolm said.

"Stop it!" Victor shouted.

"Why, does it scare you? Suck it up, this isn't about you for once in your life!" I wasn't really angry at him, but he was there and the anger and fear inside me had to go somewhere or it would explode again.

"She's a catholic," Malcolm said. "If she believes in it, it might help her."

"The priest will make it worse. I know this thing and it will only retaliate," I told him. "It's been games so far, do you really want to challenge it? And you don't want to help her, you just want to use her to find Mina!"

"You know nothing, little girl."

"This is what happens when you murder your way across a continent!" His hand collided with my face. I was more surprised than hurt, I never thought he'd actually hit me. Ethan shoved him away from me.

"You've got a girl dying in there!" Victor looked as surprised as I felt. My hand was on my face. "Not some monster with fangs. You want a daughter, there she is." He pointed at me. "There she is." When he hit me, it was like all the anger drained away. He stared at me like he'd realized what he'd done. Guilt. He'd never looked at me with guilt before.

"Get the priest." He headed down the stairs. I leaned over the balcony.

"Malcolm." He stopped on the landing. "I swear, if she's right, if you let all this happen so you can manipulate her, I'll rip your throat out." He kept going. Ethan and Victor were staring at me. I went past them both to Vanessa's door. I leaned my head against the wood and closed my eyes. No, I wasn't losing her. I wasn't letting her die. I would get her through this no matter what it took. The priest was there in less than an hour. It was 2 o'clock in the morning. I was standing at the top of the stairs as Malcolm let him in.

"Where is the woman?" the priest asked. He didn't look like much. I wished they'd just listen to me. This priest was going to send us all to hell.

"Before we go up, there's more we should tell you."

"Sir Malcolm, I need only know if she's been through the sacrament of baptism." I rolled my eyes.

"It's rather more complicated than that," Malcolm said. "We believe that she is being controlled by another force. A power behind our understanding. It's our hope that you might be able to make progress where we have failed."

"He won't." The priest's eyes turned to me.

"You are talking about the ritual of exorcism?"

"Genius," I breathed.

"Yes," Malcolm said, ignoring me.

"It's forbidden. Without express permission from the church of Rome, it will not be forthcoming."

"Meet her at least." Fight the battle, make yourself feel like a good man. He'd never be a good man in my eyes.

"I can hear her confession and I can administer the last rights. More than that is impossible." A bullshit priest, that's what he was.

"Give her the last rights and get the fuck out of this house, you ridiculous man," Victor said.

"I second that," I agreed.

"I will do my duty and nothing more."

"Come this way," Malcolm said. He lead him up the stairs and I shot daggers at them both as they passed me.

"What do you think will happen?" Victor asked. Was he really asking me that? I thought he was science boy.

"I think it's going to fight back. So far all it's done is try to tear her and us down. Now it's going to lash out." His eyes were wide. "Just… stand by the door."

"You're not scared?"

"Not for me." We'd reached the hallway.

"You don't think it will hurt you?" I didn't answer. We all filed into the room. Ethan had been waiting with her. Her breathing was raspy and gurgled. The priest took one look at her and turned towards the door. Ethan blocked his path. I sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hello Ness," I said softly, smoothing her hair. No change. "Brought you a visitor."

"Do what you're here for," Malcolm ordered. "Get him a chair." The priest made the sign of the cross before taking the chair on the other side of the bed.

"Do you understand my words?" She didn't move.

"Ness?" I said softly. Her eyes fluttered. "She hears you." The bullshit priest opened his bag and put his robe around his neck.

"Are you a Roman Catholic?" I nodded. Her eyes were focused on him now. "You follow the teachings of mother Rome and her ministry's on earth? " I hadn't heard words like this since I was ten. When my mother still believed in God. "Her name is Ness?"  
>"Vanessa," I corrected. The other were standing in a line watching us.<p>

"My name is father Matthews, you know why I'm here?" She wasn't responding, so he just continued. "You were baptized and confirmed in the church of Rome? Are you prepared to take extreme action and take your confession?" He went to touch her head.

"I knew… I knew a Matthew. Doctor Christopher Matthew Benning. He tortured me with water too." I watched the priest's face. Even though he was a bullshit priest, he didn't deserve to get hurt because of us. "I knew another Matthew in the ancient days. He was a tax collector. He died. It was very hot and sunny. I nailed him on the sticks upside down so he would come to me faster. So he would see it." It was the fear. That was what the priest was afraid of. Then it jumped up. It had somehow torn it's hands out of the restraints as it launched herself onto the priest and bit him. Then it jumped onto the ceiling. She stuck there, turned it's hand and grinned at me, then landed on Malcom. Ethan and Victor managed to rangle her back as she screamed. I shut my eyes and the window shattered. I knew it wasn't any demonic power that had done it. It was me. Fear made it work easier than anger.

"Get him out!" Ethan shouted about the priest. "Get him out!" They didn't have to. He went flying towards the door without being touched. So did Malcolm and then Victor. I wasn't doing that. Ethan was holding her arms, he was the last to fly out the door. Then it was just me. I locked it with my mind because I could. Then I grabbed the gun that had fallen from Ethan's belt and pointed it at her. It threw it's head back and laughed . I let the gun fall to my side.

"Ness, I know you're still there." It paced towards me as I backed up towards the wall. "I'm not gonna leave you. Ness…" Her eyes changed and she started crying.

"Ava," she was looking at the gun. "Please. Please. Do it. Make it stop." My hand found the gun and I raised it. But I wasn't killing my sister.

"I'm gonna make it stop, Ness. I promise. I looked into her eyes, into a different part of her.

"It's me you want. I see that now. But you could never get to me because I haven't done anything horrible. My parents did, my sister did, but not me. So you can have me. I'm giving myself to you. Just leave her alone." Her eyes flickered. "That's what you need isn't it? Permission? You have it. You have me. You win." She let out a long breath, like she was dying. Then she fell to the ground. I thought I'd feel pain. That I would black out, forget who I was. But I didn't feel any different. There was nothing.

"What did you do?" Ethan was standing in the doorway. I must have unlocked it somehow.

"I didn't kill her," I responded. "I couldn't." He picked her up and put her in the bed. I crawled in next to her. He was staring at me like I was already on my deathbed. "Not yet," I told him. "It will wait. Or maybe it won't come at all. Maybe all I had to do to get it away from her was stand up to it. Maybe all I had to do was push my energy at it like I did with the glass and the lock. Maybe I'm more powerful than I thought." I was lying, I knew it wasn't done. I had said yes to that thing two times in my life. One time to punish my sister, this time, to save her.

I woke up to someone smoothing my hair. Vanessa was looking back at me when I opened my eyes.

"Hello," I said sleepily.

"Hello." She kissed my hand. "Ava… I know where Mina is."


	8. Grand Guignol

"'There cannot be a happy end for claw with slash and tooth will rend."'

"And nothing more?" Malcolm was leaning across the table eagerly. I saw him now, the real him. He didn't care about Vanessa, he didn't care about me. Not even a little. All he wanted was Mina and he'd sacrifice us both to get her back. I loved her too, but I would never do what he had. I had to protect Vanessa from him.

"There were images I'd seen at the theater where I saw the play. I believe Mina is trying to be found." But we'd believed that before. And every time we followed a lead, it was a trap.

"We know they flee when they're discovered, like a pack of rats seeking a new den. Perhaps this time we'll be lucky."

"And if we are?" I asked. He looked down at his hands.

"I left my son to suffer without me. I'll not do the same to my daughter." I didn't pity him, not one bit. He deserved what he got. He deserve to lose them both. He hadn't deserve to have them in the first place. I was his daughter too, didn't he remember that? No. Because I was a mistake. I didn't count for anything. I was the child he looked at and saw the error of his own sins.

"Meaning?" Vanessa asked. She was the only reason I didn't jump over the table and strangle him. She'd been through enough, she didn't need to carry my burdens too.

"If I can save her, I will. If I cannot, I will end her suffering."

"And that will bring you peace?" I taunted.

"Don't be native child, it doesn't suit you. I'll contact the others. We'll go after the theater closes tonight." He left the room. Vanessa was staring at me.

"What?"

"One day he'll see it," she sighed. I heard the front door open and reached for a card on the table in front of me. Sembene appeared in the doorway.

"There is a gentleman here to see you." I got up and handed the card to her.

"Show Mr. Grey in," she said. I hesitated for a moment to see if she wanted me to stay. She nodded quickly, telling me it was alright. Dorian moved past me as we went in opposite sides of the door. Once he had passed, I pressed my ear against the wall. I wasn't leaving her alone in there with him. Sembene was standing as still as a soldier in the hall, he had the same idea. We were both watching her, afraid something would snap again. Only I knew that it wouldn't.

"Miss Ives."  
>"Mr. Grey, hello. Won't you sit down?" She was too kind to him. She wanted him to know why he was being rejected instead of just sending him away like I would have done. But she really had loved him. I'd forgotten how happy he'd made her. The past week and a half seemed to erase all life before it. But I still didn't feel she owed Dorian Grey anything.<p>

"I'm so glad to see you've recovered. I stopped by, but they told me you were ill."

"I'm quite myself." No thanks to him.

"Of course." There was a silence. "I went traveling you know, since I couldn't see you." He waited for her to respond, but she didn't. "Yes um, Italy at first. I bought some mancustripts."

"Welcome back."

"Will you read my future?" I felt a strange longing build in my throat. But I wanted to read his past, not his future. Could the cards tell me what my supernatural skills couldn't? I wanted to know who he was, what he was.

"I don't know that you have one."

"Everyone has a future."

"Not everyone. Some people only have a past." She was becoming more like herself with every sentence. I didn't regret what I'd done. Not for a second if it meant I could have my sister back.

"Then read my past." I'd love to.

"Then you would have no more mystery." Didn't she want to? Maybe she was too afraid to touch the cards, she'd never liked them. "Besides, my sister is better at this game than I am." She knew I was listening outside the door.

"Let me take you to lunch at least."

"I'm engaged today."

"Then dinner, better yet. There's a new restaurant-"

"I'm sorry, it's impossible." I didn't like Dorian, but I wanted her to be happy. And I hated that she couldn't be.

"I would like to talk to you."

"If you'd excuse me."

"Miss Ives!" My hand closed on the doorknob. "At four o'clock today, I'll be waiting at Rothschild's slipper. Please-"

"Good morning, Mr. Grey. Sembene can show you out." I moved away from the door as she was opening it. She moved past me without a glance and headed for the stairs. Dorian stood in the parlor like he was frozen. He wasn't use to being turned down. He'd probably gotten everything he'd ever asked for in life.

"Do you still want your future read?" I asked, moving around the doorway so he could see me. He frowned, he was unsure about me. Good. "Sit." I wasn't sure what his reaction would be, something I wasn't at all use to. He sat. I took the chair across from him, spreading the cards in an arch.

"You're wondering what changed," I said.

"Did the cards tell you that?"

"I haven't turned any over yet, Mr. Grey." I met his eyes. "To answer your question, a lot of things. And you don't need to know what those things are because they don't pertain to you. Because you're lucky."

"I'm lucky?" he asked. "I feel I've just lost the most interesting woman I've ever met."

"Is that all she is to you? Interesting?" I started to arrange the cards into a cross spread.

"You wouldn't understand." I smiled.

"Understand what? Love?" He looked out the window. I didn't want to lose his interest. "She cares about you too." He turned back. "But it can't become anything."

"Why not?"

"Like I said. You don't need to know, Mr. Grey. Pick a card." Unlike with Ethan, I didn't have to tell him to think. His hand hovered over the cards for a moment before he picked on, the center of the cross. He glanced at it, then handed it to me. I stared back at him.

"What's it say."

"Nothing." I shuffled the card back into the deck. "Pick another." He did, this time choosing out of the spread. He looked at me expectantly. "Another." He picked from the cross again. "One more." Again from the cross. I stared at him. I should have known not to ignore my feelings, they were never wrong. Dorian Grey was not human.

"So what does my future say?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Nothing. It says nothing. Ness was right, some people don't have a future."

"And my past?" He was more intelligent than I'd given him credit for. When his future had said nothing, I'd moved onto his past. And his past had been far more interesting. I didn't answer him. "You know my secrets now Ava, so tell me yours."

"Sembene!" I called. He was by the door in seconds. "Please show Mr. Grey out." Dorian rose, a smile on his face.

"You will tell your sister to meet me, won't you? I'd like one more chance to explain myself."

"You said once that you thought I didn't like you." I let his eyes. "Did you ever consider, Mr. Grey, that you're wrong? You're lucky. Do try and remain so." I could see him letting my words sink in as Sembene lead him to the door. I hoped he'd stay away. And not for Vanessa's sake, but for his own.

I went out to see Ethan because Brona was dying. Nobody told me she was, I just knew. And I could tell Vanessa wanted to be by herself. I didn't mind the long walk across town and I didn't want to bother Sembene to drive me, even if he didn't tell Malcolm where I was going. The pub below the hotel was almost empty, so I was able to walk through it without being whistled at. I knocked on the hotel room door and Victor answered it.

"Um, hello," I said. I hadn't expected Ethan would call him. The doctor held the door open so I could come in without a greeting. The atmosphere in the room was grave. And I could tell from the sound of her breathing it wouldn't be long. Ethan glanced over his shoulder to see who had come in. His face looked devastated. I knelt next to the bed beside him. Brona's eyes were closed, so I touched her hand lightly. She felt the difference between my hand and Ethan's and opened her eyes. The small movement seemed to cause her a great deal of effort.

"Ava," her irish voice rasped. "Did you... did you come here to take care of him?" I glanced at Ethan. He was looking down at her with something in his eyes I had never seen from the men in my life. Genuine love. I nodded. "Good girl." She squeezed my hand lightly.

"I need to examine her," Victor said quietly. I got up and Ethan followed me. The doctor pressed his stethoscope against her side. Her raspy breathing was the only sound in the room.

"You're comfortable then?" he asked her. Her face was very pale. Her eyes were half glazed and her hair was stuck to her head with sweat.

"My body, yes."

"And your spirit."

"My soul?" Ethan had tears in his eyes. I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"If you like." I think she would have smiled if she could.

"I hated that fucker God, you see. Cruel. Cruel, he was." Her breathing was becoming faster. "But now I'm frightened." I took her hand, crawling onto the dirty bed beside her.

"You have nothing to fear. You're stepping through a door, that's all." I knew what death was. I'd watched it happen, I'd caused it, I'd watched how it made people suffer. In a strange way, I was comfortable with it.

"Aye, but to where?" She swallowed. "I've not been good. Who waits for me on the other side of the door?" She had no idea what a saint she was. Prostitution was nothing compared to the things I'd done. Victor touched Ethan's shoulder and they went off to the side.

"It won't be long," Victor said quietly. "Could you go to the end of the corridor and fetch me a basin of freshwater?" Ethan went to leave. "Ava, you should go with him." I followed. He was walking almost too fast for me to keep up.

"Ethan." He turned around and I hugged him. He was stiff at first, but then his body softened and he put his arms around me.

"Thank you." I almost laughed.

"After all I've put you through you're thanking me? Anything I can do, just ask." We got the water and headed back. But before we entered the door, I stopped. There was only one person alive in that room.

"I'm sorry, Ethan. It's over." She wasn't that close to death when I left the room. I looked at Victor's face as Ethan went to kneel next to the bed. "Her passing was a thing of grace, I promise you." He wasn't meeting either of our eyes. "Spend your time with her. And don't worry. I'll take care of the body." He noticed I was staring at him. What was I feeling from him, guilt? No. It was triumphant. He pushed past me and went out the door. I didn't have time to think about what or why, though I already knew the answer to the first one. I had to take care of Ethan. I knelt next to him while he cried over her body. I leaned against him, knowing my presence would sooth him more than anything I could say. I couldn't tell him what I knew. It was another secret I had to carry.

I let Ethan have some time alone, I knew he needed it. I told him where to meet us after it got dark. I had to turn my thoughts to Mina again. It was starting to snow when I found Vanessa and Malcolm outside the theater.

"Where have you been all day?" Vanessa asked me.

"With Ethan. Brona died." She put her arm around me. But it wasn't the fact that she was dead that was bothering me. I'd known she was going to die when I'd met her. It was how and more importantly, why. Why had Victor killed her? When she touched me, I saw a flood of her memories. They were coming faster than they normally would be and I wasn't trying to see them, which meant she was letting me see them. I saw her and Dorian surrounded by plants. She kissed him lightly.

"_Poor Dorian, you've never known this feeling before, have you?"_

"_I don't know what I'm feeling."_

"_It's rejection." _

"I'm sorry." I really was. I wanted her happiness more than she did.. She shrugged, tightening her arm around me.

"I did it for you." She lit a cigarette.

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Ness." We both watched Ethan coming over to join us. I went to greet to leave them alone. I knew she'd make him feel better. And I wanted to talk to him.

"Thank you for what you did with Brona today," I said, He was leaning up against the wall of the theater watching the snow fall. I copied him.

"I'm a doctor, it's my job," he said it offhand, but I noticed the way he guarded his voice. I had already decided not to tell Ethan, but I still wanted to know why he'd done it.

"Really? Are doctor's suppose to kill their patience?" I watched his whole body stiffen.

"What do you mean? She was dying. She died. I had nothing to do with it."

"You smothered her with a pillow after getting Ethan and I out of the room," I said quickly. He stood frozen against the wall. I got some sick satisfaction out of making him this scared. Having this much power over him. He glanced at Ethan and I shook my head.

"I haven't told him. And I won't if, after all this is over, you tell me why you did it." He seemed unable to speak for a moment, then he nodded slowly. Malcolm was approaching Ethan and Vanessa, so I left Victor cowering against the wall to join them.

"Good, you're here," Malcolm said to Ethan. He then addressed all of us. Victor walked over with shaky legs and stood at the back of the group. I smiled at the ground. "If Mina's inside, we shall cease our moment. Under no circumstances are you to approach her. She is my responsibility." My thoughts turned away from Victor. I knew for sure this time Mina was here. It would end tonight, I could feel it. I just wished I knew how it would end.

Unlike the last time I'd visited the theater, it was empty. There was no talking or laughter; no bright lights or music. It was silent, dark and very eery. I found I wasn't as nervous in the darkness as normal. I almost wanted to say I wasn't afraid of it. Other things scared me now. Things far more threatening than shadows. I was staying close to Vanessa not because I was scared, but because I wanted to be there if she needed me. The only light came from her and Malcolm's flashlights and the dim gas light on the center of the stage.

"It's called a ghost light," I whispered to Ethan. "It's suppose to keep the evil spirits away."

"It's not doing a very good job." Malcolm and Vanessa had wandered into the stage area. I considered following, but I wanted to keep an eye on Victor. I didn't trust him anymore. I headed for the balcony stairs. Ethan, Victor and Sembene followed.

"Get that thing out of my face," I ordered. Victor lowered his flashlight.

"Do you feel anything?" Ethan asked. I shook my head no.

"Let's go back down." He gestured for me to lead again. I went towards the ghost light. If they wanted it to scare spirits, they should probably make it brighter. It was casting an eerie light on the first row of seats. I looked up and saw Vanessa and Malcolm walking on the rig line. She seemed to know where she was going. She took Malcolm's flashlight and shone it up. Ethan cocked his guns at his side. Malcolm raised his. It was only a second after my eyes rested on the creature that it's eyes flew open and I felt the ground under me fall away. I heard my scream as I fell. Ethan hit the ground beside me, firing his gun before I had a chance to even see the blond vampire lunging for us. He fired at two more jumping out of the shadows. I grabbed his second gun that he'd dropped when he fell. The trapdoor had somehow opened and we were now under the stage. I could hear Malcolm firing above us.

"Ethan!" I shouted at a vampire he didn't see. He fired over my head. Sembene jumped through the hole we'd fallen through, slashing with his swords. I found the trigger on my gun and fired it at a screeching vampire that was coming at me. My hand jerked back and almost hit me in the face, but I somehow hit my target. Another loud pop fired by my ear. Victor had come down the stairs and was shakily holding a pistol up. Had he just saved my life? If I were him, I would have let it get me. Then his secret would be safe. There were vampires everywhere. No matter how many Ethan and Sembene killed, more and more kept coming. I heard Malcolm's shots obviously not reaching his target. We were being pushed against the wall as another wall, this one made of vampires pinned us there. And then they all stopped. They just fell to the ground like they were all sleeping.

I ran for the stairs. Malcolm was pulling a bloody sword out of the dead red eyed creature. That's why they'd all fallen, they were like a nest. If you kill the leader, they all die. But how many more nests were there? I met Vanessa's eyes, but only for a second. There was something moving behind her. I would have thought it was another vampire, if it hadn't spoken.

"Vanessa." She turned around. Mina was coming out the shadows into the glow of the ghost the light. And she looked like Mina, not a vampire with red eyes. She staggered out like a prisoner who'd just escaped and was seeing the light of day again. I ran past a frozen Vanessa towards her.

"Mina!" I thought she wouldn't hug me back. That it would turn out to be another lie, but she did. And she felt like Mina, she even smelled like her flower perfume. I use to steal it to spray on my dolls and she never got angry with me like Vanessa would have.

"Mina?" I heard Malcolm ask.

"Father." Then her voice changed and my heart stopped. "Father." She spun me around, one hand holding me against her with strength she shouldn't have, the other wrapped around my neck. I couldn't see Mina's face, but I could tell by the horrified look on Vanessa's that the next sentence was directed at her. "You've brought her to me, you've done well." Ethan stepped forward.

"No, Mr. Chandler!" MIna backed up, taking me with her into the shadows. "You have no role in this play."

"Don't move Ethan," Malcolm ordered.

"Mina," Vanessa begged. "I can save you." I knew the thing holding me wasn't my sister and never would be again. I just wanted to get away from her.

"Why do you think I want to be saved?" Her voice was deep and echoing somehow, like two people were speaking at once. Her nails were digging into my skin. I knew she could snap my neck at any second.

"Look at me." Malcolm had taken a step forward. "Somewhere inside you know who you are." She held me tighter. I was afraid she was going to break my bones. "Who you were meant to be."

"I am who I was meant to be. You'll understand when you join the master. When you all join him." So her master wasn't the creature lying dead on the floor. "And now that he has his bride, he will sire generations. Starting with her." She squeezed me tighter. I realized I was crying, but I wasn't sure how long I'd been doing it for. I could feel my heart pounding. I didn't want it to get Vanessa, I wished Ethan would grab her and run.

"Don't do this," Malcolm begged.

"It's already done." She yerked my neck to the side and I felt her breath on my skin. I heard Vanessa scream and then a loud bang. I fell as the hands holding me disappeared. Mina's body rose slightly off the floor beside me. She held out her hand to Malcolm's gun.

"I'm your daughter!" Malcolm's blood stained face turned to me.

"I already have a daughter." He fired again and I shut my eyes.

Malcolm was slowing removing his maps from the wall. He'd packed up most of his geer already in to brown boxes that were scattered around the very bare looking room. Vanessa and I had been hovering outside the door for the better part of a half hour watching him in silence.

"You were right," he said quietly. He folded up a map piece and put it on top of the other ones that were spread across the table. "I was never going to go to Africa. This room must seem empty without my geer. We should get a Christmas tree, should we not?" I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or Vanessa. I wasn't use to him talking to me. The words coming out his mouth didn't seem to make any sense.

"We can have the boys over to decorate," Vanessa suggested. His eyes had filled up with tears. I had never seen Malcolm Murray cry and I'd known him my whole life. Not even when both his children were dead. Mina was dead. I'd known that, I'd known that for over a year. But it felt like my heart was breaking all over again every time I thought about it. And maybe Malcolm felt the same way. I didn't like seeing him cry. It occurred to me that I was suppose to hate him, I was so use to hating him, but I didn't want to anymore. I hugged him instead. I didn't expect him to hug me back, but he did. And I felt the weight of Vanessa's body pressed up against my other side.

All I'd ever wanted was what I once had. A family. A family that we destroyed, all three of us in our own ways. And now we were all that was left. The innocent ones were gone and only the demons remained. But even demons can love each other. Even demons can be lonely and scared and want what they lost. A family. A family to get a Christmas tree and decorate it and pretend to be like all other families. That was hope for me. Hope for all of us that maybe no one would notice that we were different, that we didn't belong. That we belonged with the innocence that we had killed.

A choir was singing as we walked into the church. I don't know how long it was that we sat on the frozen bench outside just staring at it. Well, Vanessa was staring at it. I was staring at her. Eventually, she'd gotten up and I'd stayed at her side like I'd meant to get up to. I'd forgotten how big church's were. The little' boy's voices echoed off the walls. I slipped my gloved hand into hers. I wondered if it helped. I was here because she'd asked me to come, but I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know what she was doing. I followed her to the front of the massive church where a priest was examining a stack of papers as he walked.

"Father. May we speak with you?" The priest took us into his office. It was full of porcelain statues and old books. Vanessa sat on the other side of his desk, but I stood. Church's made me nervous.

"Do you believe in the mercy of our lord Jesus Christ?" The priest asked. I listened to bells toning from another church in the distance. There had to be a hundred catholic churches in this city.

"Yes."

"Do believe our lord forgives all?"

"Yes."

"Then we've made a good start, haven't we?" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. This was important to her. "What do you fear, girl?" She glanced at me before she answered.

"Those things of which I am capable. Of which I have proven myself capable." I moved closer to her chair.

"Are they really so monstrous?" A man could never picture a woman being powerful, not even a priest who was suppose to believe in equality.

"Do you believe a soul can be taken over by another? That you can lose yourself to something dark?"

"I believe in the devil, if that's what you mean." I might have liked this priest if I hadn't felt so uncomfortable. He wasn't as judgemental as others I'd met.

"That's what I mean. I believe in curses. I believe in demons, I believe in monsters."

"Do you?" I asked him.

"I believe more in sicknesses that can be treated." Oh, here we go. Science again. No one who believed in science could help us. And I didn't want help anyway.

"But when the treatments fail?" Vanessa asked. "When science fails, what is there then?" The priest frowned.

"You mean exorcism." Well, he caught on to things, that was a start. "You know, back in Wales where I'm from, there was a boy who was ill. The parish decided on the rite of exorcism, they did not seek approval from Rome. It was, well a community event, you might say. And I was asked to assist. To help that poor boy."

"What happened to him?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"He died." Vanessa tensed. "They all died."

"Did he find God?" she asked.

"No. No one did. Now, before we continue our conversation, my dear, there's one thing you must understand. Even if it can be verified, this is a long, grueling and dangerous thing you ask. Could take months or years. Or always. Or never. But before we say another word, you must look into your heart and you must answer me a question, just one. If you have have been touched by the demon, it's like being touched by the back hand of God. Makes you sacred in a way, does it?" He looked at me as if he somehow knew I was the culprit. "Makes you unique. There's a kind of glory. The glory of suffering even. Now here's my question. Do you really want to be normal?"

**On hold until next season starts, which is hopefully soon! They said 2015, so can it be like January first? :P I'll keep the chapters coming with season two, thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed. 3 3 3 **


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